Santa's Gift Story v. 2012 and Other Holiday Tales

This bell is a wonderful symbol of the spirit of Christmas - as am I. Just remember, the true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart. - Santa Claus, The Polar Express

This year's Christmas celebration didn't involve a lot of trips outside of our comfort zone (meaning no more parties, dinner dates and last minute shopping to rush to) and yet we were extremely exhausted. So what exactly did we do on Christmas day?

Everything started days prior to Christmas day. The daddy of the house decided to start 'spring' cleaning early and got everyone involved. The vacation days that we planned to dedicate to more arts and crafts, Montessori activities (thanks to my n@wie sister Clarice for sharing her ebooks to us), and review on reading/phonics turned out to be more of the physical kind and nowhere near the educational activities that I've mapped out. The cleaning spree lasted till Christmas day. The daddy only left us a few hours to prepare for Noche Buena. Thankfully, I was in no mood to work on a complicated menu plan so I settled for a simple Noche Buena menu of Spaghetti in Bacon and Cream sauce (thanks to Joey of 80breakfasts.blogspot.com for the sauce recipe), Fruit Salad, Spareribs in Bbq sauce (thanks to Maqui for the recipe), and Choco Walnut Banana Bread from Purple Oven. By 8pm I was already done with cooking, so I suggested that we watch The Polar Express with the kid (I was inspired by Maqui again hahaha, gaya-gaya puto-maya but what can I say, you are the goddess of traditions Maqui and you really come up with the best ideas) to start a Christmas movie watching tradition. The kid was really into it that when we took out her Christmas gift to strategically place outside of our door, she didn't see any of us move. And seeing how excited she was of the thought that Santa's coming with her gift, we decided to forego midnight and give the gift instead right then and there. Tibs sneaked out of the house and knocked on our front door just after the scene in the movie where Santa rode his sleigh and set off to deliver the gifts. If only I can show here how her face lighted up when she heard the knock. And she was repeatedly asking me: "MOMMY! Papunta na talaga si Santa? Dala na nya gift ko, Mommy?"

Our "Santa" knocked 3x and left immediately. When the kid opened the door, all that was there was her gift all wrapped up and waiting to be picked up. She was speechless for a moment. She didn't even move. I think she was still trying to convince herself that there was really a gift sitting right in front of our lawn. Then what happened after that took place in a flash. She grabbed the gift and dragged it inside the house. I read the note that "Santa" wrote on the manila paper wrapper and right after I finished reading, she tore off the wrapper. She kept saying: "I'M SO HAPPY, MOMMY! I'M SO HAPPY!" while tearing off the wrapper. I almost cried I tell ya! I didn't expect she would be THAT ecstatic.

We hardly buy gifts (as I've mentioned here) for this little girl apart from blocks and some sensory toys, I couldn't remember buying her anything else. But this time around we made an exception (as the grannies also 'pressured' us into buying since they weren't able to get her a gift themselves). I know she wanted that scooter as evidenced in most of her drawings these past few weeks but didn't really think we'd get this kind of response over that. But I guess, it does pay not to do this often because she gets to appreciate it tenfolds. Of course, she still believes it was really Santa who gave her the gift. And we will let her enjoy that thought till she finds out the truth about Santa in her own time. For now, I will let this kid bask in those happy thoughts. (I myself can't help but smile when I remember her face that night of the 24th)

I'm so happy, i'm sooooo happy!

day 2: sabihan mo si Santa mommy inaalagaan ko mabuti yung gift nya ha?
nililinis ko nga ngayon eh! (parang kotse lang mega punas pa ng alcohol)

Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see. - The Conductor, The Polar Express

Who would've guessed we'd bump into Santa right after hearing Christmas mass?