Christmas in South Africa

To prepare for Christmas this year, the girls learned all about Santa Claus and St. Nicholas. We watched Christmas movies everyday (their absolute favorite was Mickey Mouse's Once Upon a Christmas) and visited Santa at various places. When we saw him at the mall, Taelyn was pretty shy and didn't want to sit on his lap, but she couldn't stop talking about him. Then we saw him again at the Bird Sanctuary, and Taelyn ran over to him for a hug and a picture. Kaelia was not so excited about the visit, though. She cried when we got close to him, and that was the end of her encounter.

We also had a couple of activities to help bring the Christmas mood. I took the girls to the mall for a few days to complete Christmas activities. On one day, Taelyn had to spin a wheel to try to earn a special prize. Her spin landed on a space that required her to answer a Christmas question: What color is a Christmas tree? Taelyn smiled and said "green" and was then given some Christmas cookies (which she gladly shared with her sister). We also received special emails for each of the girls from Santa himself. The emails included pictures of the girls and details about whether they have been naughty or nice this year. The girls loved the emails and watched them over and over again. You can also view these emails at the websites below.

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/mrU_1o10UgVY_D9z-n8bBng
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/mH2ZkVLuytRaM1-NxXuaDrw

Since we were in Tanzania over Christmas, we celebrated the day when we got back. Our Christmas day was actually on New Years Eve. The night before, we wrote a letter to Santa and left cookies for him and carrots for the reindeer. Then Justin read Twas the Night Before Christmas to the girls, and they were off to bed.

Both girls woke up around the same time the next morning, so we all waited in mommy and daddy's bedroom while Justin put in Mannheim Steamroller's "Deck the Halls" to let us know that it was time to start Christmas. Even though the girls don't remember this song from last Christmas, they had no trouble figuring out that the song meant Santa had come to our house. As soon as they heard it, they ran down the hall (Kaelia actually screamed!) and headed straight for the Christmas tree.

We started with stockings and then moved on to the rest of the presents. Santa was so generous that he even brought presents from Grandma and Grandpa Walker and Pepera out to our house in South Africa! Taelyn had the same response after opening each gift: "that's pretty cool!" while Kaelia screamed in excitement as she opened up most of her presents (there was a lot of screaming from her that morning). They were very happy to see all of their new presents. Some of the highlights were:
1. Taelyn got Kaelia and teddy bear, and Kaelia got Taelyn a pirate dress-up outfit.
2. Grandma and Grandpa Pepera gave the girls some play food and a table and chairs.
3. Grandma and Grandpa Walker gave the girls a play kitchen.
4. Santa brought Kaelia a baby doll and Taelyn Lightning McQueen Mater cars.
5. We got Taelyn a doctor's dress-up set and Kaelia a stroller for her baby doll.
6. Santa also brought both girls a new tent.

The girls have been playing in their playroom non-stop since Christmas. We had to rearrange and decorate it all over again to make room for all their new toys. It has now been almost a week since Christmas and Taelyn is still saying "That was so nice of Santa and Grandma and Grandpa!" at least once a day.

This digital scrapbooking design made with Smilebox