More Christmas stuff

When I was a little girl my mom used to always take me to Dayton's department store's Christmas display. Each year they had a new holiday display that you would wander through to find Santa at the end. I have fond memories of this (except perhaps sitting on a scary man's lap) so I thought it would be fun to let Riley have this experience. Saturday we headed off to Macy's (formerly Dayton's) to see  "A Day in the Life of an Elf". We decided to skip seeing Santa since she just had the opportunity to last weekend (and we knew that she wasn't going to change her mind about sitting on his lap). I put her in a holiday themed outfit and off we went.

All ready to have some fun.

Riley especially liked this stage as there was a mouse that ran across the floor. As you can see the lady on her knees is trying to catch it with a basket.

At elf school.

When we got home I decided to sort through some old picture and found pictures of me at the holiday display when I was almost one. Wish I had seen them sooner as we might have actually used the flash in the display area to get a similar picture. Guess we can always go back!

It was a very brown Christmas in 1972. That's my sister, Karen, with the large white bag... standing in front of the giraffes.

It must have been an international Christmas as each of these pictures appears to have a different culture represented.  聖誕快樂

Ole!

Not sure what country this is supposed to represent.

Holland? And check out us ladies with our exposed legs in December. In Minnesota. Brrrr. My mom made us wear dresses all the time... even my sister who is about 12 years older than me. Karen was not a fan of this and was known to sneak clothes and makeup to school.

And does my diaper look humongous? I know I wore clothe diapers with a diaper cover, but it looks like someone needs a diaper change.

Poland?

Apparently, I'm trying to imitate the doll to my right. Also, this bear was in the Mexico picture as well. I wonder if the bear was in every scene. I don't know about you but when I see this bear I have visions of honey... not Christmas.



I'm pretty sure they frown on you placing your child in the display. No one probably thought twice about this as they looked through these pictures, but the rule keeper in me is reminded of it when I look at almost every one of these pictures. Yeah, I know... I need to loosen up.

This half dead potted plant makes you feel like you are in another country for sure.

When I first saw this one I thought it wasn't part of the series because of the rug. I was pretty sure that this was taken at someones house, but then I realized that this was fitting of the design caliber of this display. Plus, who would have 7 dolls in their living room? Oh, and each of the pictures in this series was numbered so I knew this had to be at Dayton's (all of the pictures here are in order, but there were about 5 pictures missing).

Someone is tired and ready to go home. But first, Santa...

My sister and my brother, Scott, accompany me.

Merry Christmas

Last Saturday we attended our first official Christmas party of the season. Jesse's mom is one of 11 kids so they rent out a local town hall and have a big party that includes lots of food, good company, more food, and Santa. Because of Riley's rather horrific puking incident as Jesse pulled into the grocery parking lot he was not able to shop for items for the dish I was going to make. Pre-made veggie tray to the rescue!  It was probably a good thing because everyone brought very hearty meals. Delicious, but heavy on the carbs and proteins. Note to self: bring veggies next year too. : )

Riley was a little overwhelmed when we first arrived and snuggled with me or her daddy. Love when she does that. She usually seems to warm up fast that I don't consider her a shy kid, but it is interesting to see how she responds to crowds since I was that shy kid. She started to ease up a little when I asked her to help me take some pictures. She likes to put her face up against the camera while I click the button. We hope for the best and have taken some decent pictures together. She got this rather good shot of Grandma and Grandpa.

After taking a few pictures of the crowd she decided she wanted to hang out with her daddy.

Yeah, I'm not sure how to explain the above picture except that they were apparently flipping their "hair". You had to be there.

Riley decided that Grandma was cool and decided to walk off with her. There is a back room that has a coat rack and extra chairs and tables. The kids love this room and Riley was no different.

The other kids were playing hide and seek in this room. There really wasn't many places to hide, but they tried. As you can see the kid in the green is about to sneak under the chairs while there is a little girl behind the chairs, but in front of a mirror (behind Riley). Let's just say the kids were discovered pretty fast, but I don't think that mattered much to them. Please note how disgusting this floor is. All I can say is I am grateful Riley isn't a crawler anymore. Yuck.

Riley and Jackson also tried to play hide and seek. Riley really didn't know what was going on, but Jackson knew how to hide and asked for assistance from Jesse in getting to this awesome hiding space. No one found him except for Riley. That's my girl.

She had fun running behind these stacked tables and then sneaking up and scaring daddy by yelling "boo!"... over and over and over.

After playing it was time for food. Imagine lots of hot-dishes, meatballs, etc. Also imagine this table times two plus another table devoted to desert. Tons of great food.

Riley strutting her stuff in her Christmas outfit.

Jesse and his cousin, Tatum, aka. Tator Tot.

Sisters, Katie and Suzie.

Santa time! Jackson was really into Santa. Riley? Not so much. As you can see she's not sitting with the other kids.

Wait! Riley agrees to sit with the other kids... for about 30 seconds. I'll take it. Little by little she'll warm up to this guy. I'd probably be freaked out by a hairy guy in a funny suit with a big bag too if I were her age.

Some of the younger kids getting their gifts from Santa.

 Riley's turn. Hesitant, but not crying.

Still, she won't be sitting in this guy's lap any time soon.

Hey, but it went over way better than last year:

Even some of the bigger kids got gifts from Santa. He's a generous guy.

Twins! Cutest. Thing. Ever.

And sometimes the adults even get in on the fun. Here, Jesse's aunt, Deb, gets something from Santa Tatum.

So Santa (aka Jesse and I) had picked out a different gift that Riley was going to get to open at this party, but apparently someone (me) grabbed the wrong one. No matter. She loves her camera and walks around with it saying "picture" in her cute little voice. It's actually a pretty cool camera. It takes pictures, videos, has games, and hooks up to the computer so you can upload your work, er I mean her work. She may not have the technique completely down, but she sure enjoyed it.

 There we go... camera turned the right way and looking out the two eye holes. Now say "cheese".

Jesse's uncle Jeff works with Santa... at the North Pole, of course. 

I don't know what was more dangerous... a couple of very young children or Jesse hovering over Koby's new Halo game pieces.

After a couple hours Riley started to get clingy again. I'm sure it was because she was getting tired, but I'd like to believe that she thinks I'm so awesome that she didn't want to let go of me.

Happy Holidays!