Merry Christmas!

Another exciting Christmas is upon us!  Last year I thought Christmas was just the most wonderful thing because Maddie was finally old enough to start getting into the magic of it all.  Well, I've gotta say that this year just might top last year.  Maddie hasn't missed a single day on any of her three advent calendars!  She was counting down the days and near the end (1-4 days) she started jumping with glee over how close it was til Christmas.  Tonight we put out reindeer food that's sprinkled with glitter so the reindeer could find our house easily.  We also put out milk and cookies for Santa.  Maddie added the sprinkles to the cookies and told me she had to add lots of sprinkles because sprinkles are Santa's favorite.  Well, "Santa" sure did enjoy those cookies!!  This is the first year that Maddie will really understand what gifts are from Santa and what gifts are from Mommy and Daddy and other family members.  She had a few gifts she specifically asked Santa for, so those will be labeled from Santa.  All the others are coming from us.  We didn't really know how to handle gifts.  We want our girls to enjoy the magic of Santa, but we don't want them to think all gifts just come from elves at the North Pole.  We want them to understand that Mommy and Daddy (and other family) think about them and love them and want to pick out special presents for them.  So this year our girls are getting two gifts each from Santa and their stockings will be from Santa.  Everything else is coming from the people who love them.

I got a little sidetracked...sorry.  Let me get back to the magic of Christmas through the eyes of a 3 1/2 year old.  Maddie was so excited to do the reindeer food.  She was so antsy as soon as we got home from church this evening she wanted to put out the food.  Then we had to finish Santa's cookies.  Then The Sound of Music came on tv and she had to watch some of that (she doesn't know it yet, but she's getting that movie from Great Grandma Reese tomorrow!!!).  When I finally took her up for bed, well after 8:30, she was still so giddy and silly with the excitement of Christmas.  But then a little fear set in.  I told her if she was lucky she would get to hear Santa's sleigh bells as he flies away from our house (thinking I would jingle some bells before I headed to bed, whether or not she heard them).  Ooops...wrong thing to say, Mommy!  She started getting worried.  She didn't want to hear Santa's sleigh bells because it might wake her up and she will be scared.  I had to tell her I'd leave a note asking Santa to keep his sleigh bells quiet as he flew away from our house.  I guess that worked because we haven't heard from her yet.  But who knows, she could still be up in her bed just worrying and watching out her window in case Santa might come in her room (we had to close her door tonight so he wouldn't go in her room...we normally keep it cracked open a little).
Well, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.  We'll take lots of pictures tomorrow and try to post some soon!