12.11.20 - Stocking glitter and Holiday Lights

Today was unexpectedly pleasant. It's just a random Friday, but we had a lot of nice little Christmas moments.

First of all, Don and Merlene sent us a Little People nativity set. The kids had a lot of fun playing with it today. The best part was how Clara and Jane play together and acted out stories with each other using the figurines. 

While Calvin was napping, the girls and I added glitter names to all of our stockings. It was a relaxing project for me since I didn't have to manage Calvin at the same time, and the girls seems to find it all pretty magical since of involved glitter. Clara said it looks like fairy dust. Jane whispered more than once that "it's beautiful."

When we were done with that, Clara wanted to write a letter to Santa. Not long prior she had been telling Jack and me about how Santa was going to bring her a Peppa pig doll. So as she dictated a letter to me for Santa, I kept trying to get her to tell him what she wants for Christmas. But she just didn't want to because she was more interested in telling him what we've been doing around the house to prepare for Christmas, such as adding names to the stockings. After I wrote out her thoughts, she signed herself and added some Christmas doodles at the bottom. She also was excited to put a stamp on the envelope. 

Then tonight we took all three kids for a drive-thru Christmas light experience. It's the first year they've done this, and I imagine it was partly in response to the pandemic. No one had to leave their cars to experience it. Jack found some caramel chocolate popcorn on sale at Costco, so we brought that and drinks with us and slowly drove through all of the different displays. At one point about two thirds in was a live Santa to wave to everyone. Clara really love that. Both the girls seemed to really enjoy all of the lights. Jack and I enjoyed seeing which corporate sponsors designed which displays. For example one display was a reindeer driving a monster truck trying to run over a grandma in a walker. The sponsor was a senior assisted living home, lol. The organizers have volunteers give out candy canes for all the children in the cars, and they also broadcast Christmas music on an FM station for everybody. It was a really pleasant little outing.