The Most Wonderful Time...

We've been headlong into the Christmas spirit for weeks now at Chateau Bergstrom, I just feel like I can't blog about Christmas until Anna's b-day has passed.  Now that we have birthday #2 under our belts, let's deck the halls!

As you can see, our visit with Santa was interesting this year.  Anna enjoyed talking to and watching the the big guy from afar...but, sitting on his lap, not so much.  It does make for an entertaining picture and definitely captures the stranger anxiety Anna has experienced on and off (mostly on) since being born.

I was afraid the experience scarred her against Santa for good, because for the 1-2 weeks after the photo, if you mentioned Santa she would say , "No Santa!".

But, it seems to have been a momentary fear because now she will tell you that Santa is coming soon!  A new visitor to our house, Tinta the Elf, has helped turn Santa's arrival into an exciting vs. scary event.

Tinta is Anna's Elf on the Shelf - the premise is that Santa sent Tinta to help him know if Anna has been naughty or nice.  Each evening Tinta visits Santa to report on Anna's deeds for the day and each morning he appears in a new spot in the house and Anna eagerly searches for him.  Tinta came with a book and Anna very solemnly follows the one rule Tinta requests in the book - no touching or his magic will go away.  Each time Anna sees Tinta she says, "No touch Tinta!  Fly to Santa."  Yet, you can see that she REALLY wants to touch and pick him up - a huge tempatation for a 2-year-old.  Tinta is smart enough to hide in high places to help remove the temptation.  We have let Anna sneak a quick kiss or two on Tinta's cheek - I mean, that can only help strengthen his magic, right?!

Many of Anna's friends in the neighborhood also have Elves who visit their homes.  I'm not sure if that means East Gate kids are prone to naughtiness so Santa sends more Elves here than normal, or if us moms are just suckers for cute traditions...The elves are a key topic of conversation among the kiddos.  At Anna's birthday party a lengthy conversation took place dissecting the hiding spots of Tinta, Chewy, Elfy Shelfy and Jason (an elf, not Jason B....) - the adults in the room were definitely smiling during the exchange.  I should note that the kids get to name the elves...hence the diversity in the names.

We put up our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  As I'm sure you cam imagine, Anna was a tremendous help decorating the tree.  She had endless energy for unwrapping ornaments and carefully placing them on the tree and never did she repeatedly remove any ornaments that I hung on the tree.  Ha. 

She did have fun decorating the tree...for about 10 minutes, then she was WAY over it (and to be honest, who isn't?).  She didn't understand why mom and dad were so focused so we ended up doing the lionshare of decking out the house while she was napping...much more efficient.

One thing Anna really likes this year are the Christmas lights throughout the neighborhood.  We've taken her on a few pre-bedtime drives and her exclamations are so sweet and help you remember the innocence and joy that can be derived from looking at Griswold-esque exterior illumination.  At a recent birthday party, Anna was giddy when we arrived at our friend's house to be greeted by an inflatable Santa and two snowman.  She stood on the lawn despite the cold temperatures and slight drizzle pointing, laughing and talking to the figures.  When I was able to finally drag her away, she said, "Bye bye Santa!  Bye bye snowman!  Bye bye other!".  I cracked up it was so sweet.