A Christmas Play, Secret Santa, and Cookies!

Maliana ~

Monday we began to get the indoor Christmas decorations out and as I made dinner, I listened to you repeatedly gasp to yourself and then softly say, "I remember this..." as you pulled keepsake after keepsake out of the boxes. It was the sweetest sound.

On a rainy and gray Tuesday, I was happy to pick you up from school and watch you make the rounds to give your friends hugs before skipping out the door. Must have been a pretty good day. And it helped make our having to clean up doggie diarrhea from light tan(ish) carpet not so bad of a chore. And now, it's really "not so tan" in spots ~ uggh.

We also attended your first annual KMA picture day at the do jang. It was like herding cats to get a good picture with this many people, particularly the children, but they did a really good job!

you're in the middle of the front row

By Thursday, on the way home from tang soo do, we were talking about Christmas and I was explaining the concept of Christmas really being about giving to those who are special to us, whether in gift or in deed, rather than just Santa bringing presents. It led to a pretty good conversation and we began brainstorming about those who have made a difference in our lives this year and what they might like. As we talked about your teacher Ms. Beth, you suggested that she likes t-shirts...when I asked you what kind, you replied, "Hmmm...I think she likes La Petite t-shirts!" It was all I could do not to laugh, but I did a pretty good job. You really were attempting to think about Ms. Beth from her perspective since from your point of view, Ms. Beth really does wear a lot of La Petite gear (part of her work uniform!), therefore she MUST like it. Makes perfect sense! Ha.

Friday we kicked back after speech and put on some Christmas music, made rice krispie ornament treats, and waited for Daddy to come home from work. It was our first official Christmas cookie project of the season...and I think they turned out pretty good.


the finished product

as you can see, you loved squeezing that icing!

Going to bed that night, we read a book about making dumplings for New Year when you said, "Hey! I made dumplings before!" and remembered it was with William and You You (Zuchao and Ziying). Then you said, with a sweet little grin, that you wanted to do it again. Me too kiddo! It was a really fun experience.

Saturday was one of our first big Christmas "memory making" outings this year. We decided to treat our loved ones with gifts of DOing things, instead of buying stuff, in an attempt to make memories that can last forever. The first time we did this was your first Christmas with us when we dressed all of the Wilkinsons in matching PJ's and took them on a Polar Express train ride. Everyone still remembers and talks about it to this day. Hopefully in the years to come, we can do more things like this together to create gifts that are timeless.

here we were, Christmas 2009, in all of our
matching pajama splendor!

Anyway, this year we took the Wilkinson crew to a play at the Columbus Children's Theatre called "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever". It was probably a bit more enjoyable for the older girls, but I think everyone had a good time. The young performers did a truly wonderful job! Afterwards we went back to Memaw and Papaw's for dinner and then all four of you girls spent the night. You were so excited to kick Daddy and I out the door, completely pumped to be hanging with the big girls and "on your own" for the evening. Daddy and I got to enjoy a nice evening out and even caught a movie at the theatre, and it WASN'T animated! We fully expected to get an emergency call about 11pm or so, asking us to come pick you up, however the call never came and as we drove home from the movie, we marveled at what a big girl you are becoming. You have such fun with your cousins, deep down we knew we didn't have to worry. All in all, it was a successful evening for everyone.

love that we have this children's theatre in town

after the play

my cheesy idea to have Christmas hats/headbands
for our festive holiday group photo

you were so proud to have packed your
own Hello Kitty suitcase for
the sleep over

Sunday morning we came back to Memaw and Papaw's and all of us headed to 8:30am mass, then for their Secret Santa in Daddy's old elementary school, St. Phillip's, behind the church. Each of you kids got to pick out gifts (all things that church members had brought in after cleaning out their homes - think "White Elephant" gift type stuff) for your parents, grandparents, and other special people in your lives. Just the other day you and I had been talking about how Christmas is more about giving than receiving and so this was a great way to demonstrate that and you REALLY had fun doing it. The church members even wrapped and labeled your gifts so you could stick them right under the tree until Christmas. Us grown ups got a huge kick out of some of your choices. These gifts range from very thoughtful to downright bizarre...and we are going to LOVE them all!

waiting for them to wrap one of your
Secret Santa presents

 

"you have to wait until Christmas!"

taking a tour through Daddy's old elementary school

 

on the steps of St. Phillips

Of course, I can't talk about your going to church without also sharing another reason I know that you are definitely Daddy's daughter. As we are sitting on the hardwood pews in the same church that Daddy grew up in (and luckily at a more noisy moment of mass), you let rip a huge and very long series of farts, thus cracking yourself and your cousin Sammy up. As if that wasn't enough, you then leaned over to me grinning and asked very loudly, "Can you smell that?!?" Nice. You are SO your father's daughter!

Sunday afternoon Lao Lao came over and we did our tradition of making and icing Christmas cookies. Each year you get less and less messy, which is nice because even though this year is warmer than last, it's still too cold to take you out back and hose you down. Ha.

a shout out to Audrey since she is graduating
next weekend!

this was the first one you chose to eat this year

it sure felt like we decorated a heck of a lot more...and yes, as you
might be able to see from some of the designs, we got a little
bored with the usual Christmas decoration ideas

After cookies were made, I cleaned up and you and Daddy decorated our family tree with the ornaments that have been sitting in a box next to it for the last week. We've all been so tired lately that instead of treating the job of trimming our tree as a hugely momentous occasion this year, it's been more of a marathon in short bursts of decorating little by little each day. Slowly the Christmas spirit has fully embraced our house and I think now, we can (almost) just sit back and enjoy it all. Ahhh...perhaps this year we have enough of a handle on things that we can relax and really take in that Christmas spirit. We've definitely got a good start.

Love,
Mama