Dear Addie,
This week we dove head first into the Christmas holiday season!
Ok, so we’ve actually had the tree up for a couple of weeks now, but we we’re all in on everything else! Funny gnomes and elves adorning our tree, stocking are hung, lights outside! You even proved your great memory association by asking for snow as soon as the tree was up - “make a snowman?”
Addie while I love that you think I’m the most magical person on earth, and it was also a very welcomed change from hearing “make a shicken” or “make a taco”, the truth of the matter is I really can’t make snow just appear (nor would I want it to for that matter - although I’m sure there’s some fancy Pinterest recipe but still?!) just to make you a snowman. Soon Addie, soon! Surely it will snow at least one day this year.
With the house all set in the festive Christmas spirit, next up was one of my favorite things to do - our annual holiday photos! The time of year when we document everyone’s cuteness and attempt to capture a good snap shot of just how much everyone has grown in the past year.
Operation Christmas card photo... and go!
Let’s just say you didn’t share the same excitement for this day. Your commitment level to this whole process was pretty non existent, and having to get a good hair brushing in made you all sorts of angry - cue MADdie paying a visit, and we haven’t even left the house yet!
You were so angry that even our “go to” bag of tricks did absolutely nothing. Dad decided it’d be best if he drove you around the block while I finished getting Clara and Gabe ready.
With one quick trip around the block, the rest of us were ready to go, and all met up with you and daddy in the van. Still pretty noticeably mad, daddy thought maybe you just needed to eat (or maybe he was just hungry?) and said “Addie do you want a cheeseburger?” to which you quickly replied “a cheeseburger, yes!”
Mark it Ad, you were “hangry!” I mean clearly that’s the snack of choice any parent would give their child who is all clean getting ready for photos - I suppose ketchup is red so it does look somewhat festive right?!
Cue Operation Wendy’s... and go!
Three cheeseburgers down, covered in breadcrumbs and ketchup, you were way happier now! Success! Now to get cleaned up (again) and get these pictures done!
The sun was perfect so we went to a beautiful park not far from our house.
We walked a ways out, and I laid a blanket down instructing everyone to sit and smile. I was a little worried about snakes creeping in on us next to the tall grass, but I’m happy to report this didn’t happen. After few minutes of trying to get ourselves together,
Clara sniffed her nose due to allergies. You were not pleased, and lashed out (Clara was ready to defend herself, and did - this was not her first rodeo).
That’s when we realized we needed to move on to another location.
Clara sweetly offered to grab the blanket then all of a sudden she let’s out a big scream! Ahhhhhhhhh! I immediately thought it was the snakes! Nope. Under our blanket was a dead turtle - no we didn’t kill it (it looked to have passed on a while before), but you’d think I would’ve seen that when I put the blanket down. Insert my tunnel vision to get this done! RIP turtle.
This being our 8th year of coordinating outfits and mommy and daddy making silly faces, noises and perhaps a few bribes to document just how far you have all grown each holiday season, I have to admit this year was noticeably different. In the past, we would place you in the middle of Clara and Gabe and someone would be holding you still and in place so we might snap the perfect picture. This year nobody held you in place, instead you grabbed onto Gabe. Clearly you thought he was the one who needed help sitting still this year!
But in all seriousness, you were in your element, nature. And you proved to be very much a big kid this year. Yes, we were all being goofy, but you followed direction far better than years past and nobody had to pin you down, so everyone won there. Yay!
After sifting through about 800 photos, we managed to get a handful of funny, beautiful, and precious memories that we will surely tell our grandkids about one day.
So the day didn’t start off super great, but say “cheese”burgers and it all turned around!
Great job big girl!
Love,
Mom
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