Christmas wrap-up

We start with Christmas Eve, when Hazel was clearly excited to leave out milk and a reindeer cookie for Santa. It took her awhile to fall asleep, even with no nap, and the few times I went in she told me she hadn't heard Santa on the roof yet. Nope, I kept telling her he wouln't come until she was asleep. I found an adorable little metal tray at the thrift shop for the treats.

She knew when she woke up that it was Christmas but was in no hurry to get downstairs, contentedly going through our normal morning routine before heading down to "see what Santa brought me." Having taken the presents out of her stocking, but not opening them all yet, she heads for the big stuff.

She was fairly deft at unwrapping things this year, with focused concentration, but with every package said, "so much tape, silly elves." Note to Mommy: just enough tape next year to hold the paper on.

The Cars wrapping paper was a hit, as were all the Cars gifts.

Including a playmat with two sets of cars from the movie, a Cars bike helmet, and Cars slippers.

Such a look of excitement for a John Deere tractor!

A very pretty ornament of a teddy bear in a hot air balloon.

Ah, and a Cars bath towel - how could I forget?

Now she can save baby animals with the Wonder Pets and their Fly Boat. Mostly, they seem to host parties on their boat for all the various and sundry figurines in her collection - Noah and his animals, Winnie the Pooh and gang, and the FP people.

Another big hit was this Fisher Price "fair" set. She calls it a fair set, because we see the Puyallup Fairgrounds frequently on our excursions so she remembers it pretty well. Noah and his wife have enjoyed the rides too.

She was very excited to see that "Santa remembered!" and got her the Thomas train set she wanted. She didn't want to see Santa at the mall a few days before Christmas, but we did leave her note with one of Santa's helpers, to make sure he knew what she wanted. I think the train set is permanently set up on our living room floor now, but that's okay, as it's mostly her play space anyway.

And here is her beloved talking Snow White mirror. It really doesn't take much to entertain her sometimes. It says about 10 lovely phrases like, "Your hair looks adorable, Princess" and "Bashful thinks you have a pretty smile." I haven't hidden the batteries yet, although she did play with it for several hours combined, on our trip to Canada (see next blog).

I'll wrap up with some of her quotes while opening presents.
"Always I wanted a book!"

"Finger paint. Good. I love finger paint. Paint is fun!"

"I always wanted a ______." - insert whatever she just opened.

"Legos! I got Legos! Yaay! It's a whole tub of Legos! You can build stuff!"