Christmas Morning

Santa Claus is coming to town!

On Thanksgiving Day, Daniel’s Granny gave Daniel an adorable Santa Claus music box. Although Joe and I had taken Daniel to see Santa Claus on his first Christmas (which he obviously doesn’t remember), we had not really discussed much about Santa Claus yet this year with Daniel. But being the teachers we are, we viewed the gift as a “teachable moment” (gotta love the teacher terminology, but what else would you expect from not one, but TWO teachers?!?). We taught him that the music box was a figure of Santa Claus and that on Christmas Eve, Santa Claus would come visit our house and bring him toys and goodies.

Upon returning home that evening, we placed the music box on the mantel so that Daniel would not be able to reach it without our supervision (it is porcelain). However, that particular evening, the music box didn’t spend much time on the mantel, as Daniel was constantly pointing up to the mantel saying, ‘un clau’(his version of ‘Santa Claus’). He loved opening the music box and hearing the music while watching the little figurines in the belly of Santa Claus dancing around the Christmas tree.

Since that day, there have been tons of opportunities for Daniel to see and hear about Santa Claus. And being the observant little boy he is, Daniel has taken every opportunity to let us know when he has spotted ‘un clau’. Today, we felt the time was right for Daniel to meet once again with Santa Claus since he has shown such a fascination with everything Santa Claus-related. This afternoon, Joe and I took Daniel to a Christmas party hosted by the realty group with which we worked to purchase our home. At the party, we waited in line to have Daniel sit upon Santa’s lap to tell Santa what is on his Christmas list. As we waited in line, we pointed out Santa to Daniel and tried to make Daniel as comfortable with the environment so that when his time with Santa arrived, Daniel would be as at-ease and receptive as possible. Finally, it was Daniel’s turn to visit with Santa. I placed Daniel onto Santa’s lap, and Daniel immediately began laughing/crying very nervously. His reaction to Santa was quite similar to the girls you see in the footage from the old Beatles performances who are laughing and crying in nervousness and delight. I told Daniel to tell Santa what he wanted, a ‘melmo’ (Elmo), and directly after saying this, Daniel was reaching for me. I picked him up off of Santa’s lap, and still laughing/crying, Daniel meekly said ‘thank you’ three times in a row to Santa. It was so cute! Here are some pics from today’s visit with Saint Nicholas.