Today is the penultimate day of our very successful and happy vacation. We drove to Colorado the day after Mark's LAST FINAL (insert chorus of hallelujahs here), flew to Chicago, drove to Indiana, spent a wonderful weekend with South Bend friends, flew back to Colorado, and have jumped around, staying with 3 of Mark's siblings and dad.
Poor Sage--she can't even remember which house is "home." On the other hand, "Poor Sage" also has been pampered with Christmas gifts at each location. If you count the 7 of 12 days of Christmas we got before we left Utah prematurely, Sage has had almost 3 weeks of Christmas gifts. Poor Santa is more like it.
In the confusion that accompanies life when you're living out of 3 big duffel bags, I must have neglected Sage's instruction on typical Christmas traditions. How do I know? Because of a conversation we had this morning.
Last night, my sister-in-law bought adorable princess dresses for my girls. I told Sage this morning that there was a present under the tree for her. She got very excited, and leaped to her feet almost immediately, surely planning to seek out the 21st day of Christmas present. Then she stopped abruptly and earnestly asked me "Which tree?"
Which tree? I could just see the wheels in her brain turning. Is it the tree in the front yard or back yard, or maybe the fake one upstairs?
Which tree? Now the wheels are turning in my head. If I haven't taught her that most people (without curious one-year-olds) put presents under their Christmas trees, we probably haven't done justice to the discussion of "Santa" either. Which explains why she refuses to sit on Santa's lap. She must be thinking, "Who the heck is this big guy in funny clothes that's always doling out gross candy canes?"
On the other hand, after today, maybe Santa won't be a problem any more. This morning, at her cousin's preschool Christmas party, Sage refused to sit on Santa's lap, but asked me to relay the message (almost identical to her cousin's before her) that she wanted a "Belle" dress [that's the first I'd heard of that] and lipstick [meaning lip smackers]. We returned home shortly after the party and there was a Belle dress under the tree. The Christmas tree, that is.
I think Sage just might be a believer now, in spite of her lack of training. Let's just hope Santa knows which tree to put the presents under. Assuming he hasn't run out for presents for Sage by then.
[Many thanks to all the Santas that have been so generous to us. We feel grateful and humbled to have such good friends and family.]
3 comments:
I feel like I'm missing out on your life! Oh cuteness of little kids. Come back soon--hopefully Sage and Eliza still remember who I am!
I just posted about one of your Christmases. It was so nice to see you, Mark, and the girls. I wish we could have had more time together. We'll have to try to plan a trip to see you next year. We're already planning to go east. Maybe we can go west too. Have a Merry Christmas.
Good luck entering reality in Provo! --Mom
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