All I want for Christmas...

Yesterday, we took this kids to sit on Santa's lap. Which means I now feel like a good parent again since we completely forgot to take Lily last year. I think it was a combination of being busy coupled with the fact that I was about two and half months pregnant and sick as a dog most of the time.

When I first mentioned going to see Santa, Lily wasn't so sure about sitting on his lap. "I'll just stand next to him and tell him what I want." But by the time we got there, she was ready to do about anything the complete stranger in the red suit told her to do.

And what does she want Santa to bring her? A mermaid. Which is total news to us. A few months ago when I asked what she wanted from Santa, all I got was an, "I don't know." So I went with what I wanted Santa to bring her. But in the last month, anytime someone asks what Santa is bringing her, she says a mermaid. If she'd come up with the answer just once, I wouldn't have thought anything of it. But she says it EVERY TIME. Which means Santa now has to do some more shopping because there is no way I'm destroying the illusion of Santa the first year she's actually interested in it. And she knows Santa won't let her down. If we ask what Santa is bringing her now, we get the answer in a very exasperated tone, because come on...she's already told us...it's a mermaid already. Can't you remember? Jeese!

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Family Pictures 2010

This year, we had Erik's cousin, Dani, take our family pictures. Usually, this isn't a very eventful activity. We arrive at the location, we smile a lot, we try to get Laddie to look at the camera at the same time as everyone else, we go home. It's a good day.

But this year was a completely different story. About half way to Ogden's Union Station to meet Dani, Laddie decided to puke on me. Well, not on me so much as in my general direction. Most of it landed on the seat. It wasn't a lot, so I didn't worry about it much.

A little while later, we arrived at Union Station. As we were getting ready to get out of the car, Lily decided she didn't feel great either, so she puked on me, too. Unfortunately, it was significantly more than what Laddie managed. I had it all down my arm and side. And on the seat. Luckily, none of it ended up on her. I managed to wipe it all off, so at least I was presentable for our pictures, even if I did stick a little...

Dani arrived and we started our shoot. But it was so windy and cold, and we could hardly get pictures with our coats on. I mean, I'd agonized for months over what we would be wearing. I was not covering anything up with a coat. So we toughed it out long enough to get some shots in a couple locations. And now that we have the finished product, you'd never know we were freezing. But I think next year, we'll do pictures on a warmer day.

Thanks, Dani!

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Wherein I send you to another blog...

Because we don't really have anything too exciting happening in our own lives, I thought I'd pass along a link to a blog that (thanks to Meg) I recently re-discovered. This post made my day! It's probably best appreciated by people with dogs, but I laughed so hard, which actually hurt because I did an ab workout a couple days ago that apparently made more of an impression than I originally thought.

I should have some blogging fodder of my own as we get further into the season...at least I hope. I managed to forget my camera over Thanksgiving so that was a bust. But we did just get our family pictures back, and we'll be doing the SLC light scene. And Christmas itself should produce something of substance. In the meantime, I hope everyone's holiday activities are going well.

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