Hanging with Santa...

This week has been a roller coaster.  We have had some superfun highs, and all of us have had some unbelievably horrible lows. 

For the last few days I have probably been driving my kids crazy with all the extra hugs and squeezes and I-love-yous.  If anything good can possibly come from something so utterly catastrophically unthinkably awful as what happened in Newtown, it is that I have again realized how precious my own kids are, especially my own little first grader.  I love my Arden more than I could ever imagine I could love anyone, and I am so grateful to have her with me this Christmas.  I can't get enough of her this weekend, and even snuck in her room and slept in her bed for a while last night.  It is going to be hard for me (and I am sure for all of us) to smile and wave as I send her off to school in the morning.

Phew!  Anyway....we have been busy getting ready for Christmas this week.  For FHE on Monday, we drove around the neighborhood and delivered gifts to some neighbors.  The kids loved to knock on everyone's door and yell "Merry Christmas!" as they handed over our small present.  My Dax is especially friendly and made sure he got out of the car at every single house.  He is such a fun, outgoing kid and loves to do things to make other people happy. 

On Thursday, Arden was superexcited to get to sing in her school's "Deck the Halls" performance.  Each grade in her elementary school sings a couple of Christmas songs to a huge herd of crazed, camera-wielding parents.  The first graders sang "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" (which is hilarious because when I took Arden to her first day of school, the three kids at her table had not a front tooth among them.  Arden's front teeth are growing in now, but I thought that the song choice was appropriate) and "Up On Rooftop." 

We were walking down the hallway of the elementary school with the kids before the show, and Dax as usual was not so much walking as dancing/jumping/turning in circles.  Unfortunately for Dax, he wasn't really watching where he was going, and also unfortunately, the school has some big metal posts along the walls every so often...you see where this is going?  Dax was jumping along backwards along the wall and then decided to turn around at just the wrong moment and BONG!  Smacked his little head right into one of these metal posts.  Behold:

Nice little goose egg on his forehead over his eye.  Poor baby!  He was pretty brave about the whole thing (after the first minute or two of crying, of course) and had forgotten all about it by the time the songs started.  Speaking of songs, as a member of the herd of crazed camera-wielding parents, I DO have video of Arden's songs, but Preston isn't here to remind me how I get my videos into the right format to post them here.  (I took a couple of snapshots too, but they turned out horribly).  You will just have to trust me when I tell you that all the kids were supercute and Arden did great!  Have I told you how much I love that girl?

On Friday we were going to try to visit the live nativity at Liberty park to make up for missing the other nativity, but it was cold and raining HARD and so we wussed out.  Instead we put on our jammies, grabbed our sleeping bags, and had a movie night.  We watched "Muppets Christmas Carol," and Cora was nice enough to let me cuddle her through pretty much the whole movie.  She is such a great little teddy bear, and likes getting cuddled almost as much as I like to cuddle her.  Sometimes in the middle of the day for no reason she will say something like, "Mom, can we sit on da couch wif my bwankie and snuggle?"  Um, if I HAVE to.

On Saturday we woke up to a winter wonderland:

Hmmmmm...I was planning on going for a run outside that morning, but after looking out the window and seeing this I again wussed out.  I don't know about you, but I don't enjoy running with slush in my shoes.  Another treadmill day for me.  (Less than a month until my first half marathon!  Aaaahhh!)

Later that day we had our annual Haun family Christmas party.  We ate lots of food and played lots of games and then ate some more food.  The highlight of the party, of course, was getting to hang out with the big guy himself.  That's right, SANTA!

Dax was so excited to see good ol' Saint Nick, and could NOT WAIT to jump on his lap and tell Santa how he has been such a good boy and ALWAYS does what his mom tells him too (Lies, but I'll let it slide.  Santa knows the truth).

Arden and Santa go way back, of course, and she didn't hesitate to sit on her ol' buddy's lap and tell him she wanted a toy dog for Christmas (which she has never mentioned to me before...I think Santa's elves may have already made her something else...oops).

Cora for some reason was a little nervous all morning knowing that Santa was going to be coming to the party.  I showed her pictures of her and Dax sitting on Santa's lap last year, all smiles, but she was still worried.  Cora has never been afraid of Santa before, so I thought that once she saw him she would be fine.  HowEVer, when Cora's turn came, she decided she would rather not leave her daddy's lap, thanks anyways:

Santa, of course, was very understanding and still handed over the candy cane and the present.  Hmmmmm...there is no understanding the mind of a 3-year old.  (By the way, can you see the look on Dax's face in that picture?  Pure adoration.  Love it.)

Grandpa showed Cora how it is done and was all smiles for Santa:

Attaboy, Grandpa. 

There is only a week and a day left before Christmas now and I have about 1.3 zillion things to do to get ready, so I am calling this a blog post.  I will leave you all with some wishes for comfort and joy.  If you are bored, come on over to my house and I will set you to work wrapping presents.