Hannah had a much better Christmas Day than Christmas Eve. It was literally like a night and day difference with her. (I'm still not sure what all the factors were -- maybe she was just really tired or something last night.)
The special ornament I had picked out for Hannah was a metal musical note (eighth notes) where the two notes at the bottom were jingle bells. I picked it because of her affinity to music -- she is doing so well with piano lessons and she loves to sing/hum (plus, she is my best singer as far as singing on key). But when I gave it to her, I didn't get quite the reaction I anticipated. She burst into tears and told me how much she didn't like it. (You can barely see the ornament in her hand -- she refused to hold it up.)
She actually gave it back to me at one point, but when she realized I didn't have any others to give her instead, she took it back. She told me through her tears several times that next year I'd better make sure her ornament isn't about music. (She can be quite dramatic at times, if you hadn't noticed.)
I still don't know why this upset her so badly, but it was enough to really put her in a grumpy mood the whole rest of the evening (can you see how much she is frowning here?):
I talked to her later about why I chose it (because of piano and singing) and she seemed to feel a little better about it -- I think she wasn't thinking about the singing aspect of it at first. Later today I was finally brave enough to ask if she liked it anymore and she said she did a little. So maybe there's hope she won't have terrible memories every time she looks at it in the future.
After stockings last night, Hannah wanted to go outside and sprinkle her "reindeer food" she had brought home from her school party (basically crushed up pretzels, graham crackers, M&M's, etc.). So we went out briefly to do that (she was still grumpy, but not quite so much).
This morning, though, I think Hannah was the most excited of the bunch -- at least the most visibly excited. (She woke up about 3:30am because her eye hurt and maybe fell back asleep around 5:30 or 6:00 for a short time.) She was the one jumping up and down and screaming/shrieking about presents. Check her out jumping in this shot:
Hannah's little WebKinz in her stocking was a white terrier. (See McKay's post for a description of WebKinz.) She named her pet "Fluffy" (our kids come up with the most exciting pet names, don't they?)
Hannah got a wide variety of presents. They included Littlest Pet Shop and My Little Pony things, some books, some games (regular and computer), a couple of wooden bead sets (for making necklaces, bracelets, etc.), a stamp set, and a new nightshirt.
Hannah also got her own karaoke machine with a couple of kid's karaoke CDs to go with it. She really is a pretty good singer.
(McKay has also enjoyed "singing" into the microphone of the karaoke machine -- with the volume turned WAY up -- but his singing is not quite as in tune as Hannah's.)
The girls got a box of dress-up clothes (bigger sizes) -- Hannah tired several of them on this afternoon:
And here's a shot of her and Courtney at bedtime in their new nightshirts. Hannah has worn a nightshirt for the past year probably. She also has a pair of pajamas but she definitely prefers her nightshirt -- I think partly because it is so quick and easy to put on. Courtney has wanted one too, so she was excited to get one this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment