And Christmas at last

Hazel was adamant that she did not want to visit with Santa. Nevertheless, she ended up having a long conversation with him about the letter she received from him (she loved that) and the doll furniture she wanted for Christmas. Her clothing is a bit casual, though, as I had no idea she was going to change her mind while we were at the mall.
On Christmas Eve, we managed to get the required reindeer cookies baked and decorated just before bedtime. Whew... that was cutting it close. She picked out two "Rudolph" cookies for Santa's plate, the ones with red noses. The note Santa left that night said that Rudolph thought his cookies were very cute, and Hazel was thrilled at that.

She didn't have much trouble going to sleep (it currently takes her at least an hour), but she did call us in to complain that Santa wasn't going to come until we went to sleep, so could we do that please? She woke up at her normal time and didn't mention Christmas until I asked if she remembered what day it was, but after that it was all about the presents. (An aside: She now likes to use variations of the phrase, "It's all about Hazel." Too funny, but it is of course.)
Diego was waiting on the couch for Hazel to pull her new Dora doll from the top of her stocking.

Very neat glitter ball with Santa and team flying through the golden fog.

While Hazel liked all her gifts and was very excited upon opening most of them, I think the Diego Animal Rescue Truck from Aunt Hilary and Uncle Milton won present of the day. Many rescue missions have been completed since, and many animals saved.

Yaay, the baby medical kit I wanted... now what's in that package over there?

A ballerina doll that straps to Hazel's feet and dances with her! She's a bit obsessed with Clara from The Nutcracker, so the doll's name is Clara.

Hazel loves her jewelry box and frequently reorganizes her lovely necklaces, bracelets and rings.

At the end of the day, I asked her if she had a good Christmas. She said no, because she didn't like the following writing toy. She then played with it pretty much non-stop on our trip to Whistler. It's really helped her learn to control her writing implement, and she's much more comfortable with trying to write letters and numbers now. Yaay - that's what I was hoping. She always loves workbooks but gets so upset when failing to write her characters perfectly.

She was very proud of the fact that she assembled the spinner for Chutes and Ladders all by herself.

Modeling her new baking apron - those are Flathead cherries I'm sure.

Daddy enjoyed "helping" Hazel assemble her Lego motorhome - also a favorite present. Hazel's trying to get the little figure onto the bicycle.

Last week we finished up the candy from the gingerbread Hazel made at Gramma's house. It was a foam house with foam candy, but they decorated with real candy too. We just had to watch out for glitter when munching.