'Twas the night before Christmas

Linzi and I have been very busy getting ready for Santa! At 2:00 this afternoon, it started getting a little dark and rainy outside. That totally threw her off and she thought it was night time. She was ready to go to bed so Santa could come. When we told her we still had several more hours of daytime, she was so disappointed that she pouted for a bit. So we passed the rest of the afternoon away by baking cookies for Santa.

Since Linzi came home, we have a tradition of Chinese food for dinner on Christmas Eve. For our first Christmas with Linzi home, I attempted to cook a big traditional Chinese dinner. I was in way over my head in the kitchen with this idea, so each year afterwards, we have either gone out for Chinese or ordered take out. This works out much better for me and everyone else. :-)

After dinner, we wrote Santa a note.
Then we made some reindeer food. Reindeer LOVE oats, sugar and some carrots. Linzi made sure to put exactly 9 carrots out. Okay, so these carrots look a little dried up! LOL I sure hope the reindeer don't mind. :-)

I have always had a huge thing for reindeer and now it has rubbed off on LuLu. We are Rudolph's biggest fans! I love sharing this tradition and love with her. We always sprinkle the food on the lawn before bed.
After putting food outside for the reindeer, Linzi made sure to make a special plate of cookies and some milk for Santa.

For storytime, we read The Grinch and Twas the Night Before Christmas. We also talked about the true meaning of Christmas and baby Jesus. When I kissed Linzi goodnight, she hugged my neck and said "Merry Christmas mommy reindeer." You have to know that I am usually the mommy pony, so tonight, it is only appropriate that I am a mommy reindeer. My silly, sweet girl!

Finally, it was bedtime. But nighty nights did not come easy tonight. (Imagine that!) Linzi refused to sleep in her room. After much negotiating, Linzi finally fell asleep under the desk in Mandi's room. For whatever reason, this was exactly where she INSISTED on sleeping tonight!
In case you are wondering, the box next to her is her "shoe store". It is packed full of Mandi's shoes and a few purses. She insisted that her "shoe store" sleeps with her". This child's imagination is just too much sometimes but I love it. I have read that a child's active imagination is a sign of high intelligence - my child is a genius.

This momma elf is exhausted and ready to settle down for a long winter's nap.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

update: As I am finishing this post, Mandi was reading in her room and Linzi is sound asleep. Mandi just came in to tell me that Linzi is talking in her sleep and said "Hey, that's my unicorn!" LOL She even DREAMS ponies and unicorns! Sweet dreams baby girl!