Feliz Navidad

We've had such a busy past few weeks preparing for Christmas, that I haven't had much time to blog. Hayley has been REALLY into Christmas songs though and I think a lot of her interest had to do with the Christmas program her preschool put on a week ago. This was the program that Hayley spent 75% of the program with her dress over her head. (It definitely deserves a spot at the front of my "Proudest Moments in Parenting" book.) Perhaps I've mentioned before... at the ripe age of two and a half, Hayley knows everything and you can't tell her any different. Hayley did a super job learning the words to Frosty the Snowman for her Christmas program, except this Frosty has two eyes made out of CORN. Not coal. Because Hayley says so.

Hayley also took a liking to the Christmas song Feliz Navidad. Her lyrics go like this:

Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad
Feliz Navidad
Prospero Ano y YUMMY TODD.

And then there has been Simon. I'll preface this by saying that Brian and I have never been ones for pretend, make believe, fairytales, etc. Even when we were children, we were both realists and couldn't buy into most of the fad books, movies and toys. We've both agreed that most likely neither of us would have had anything to do with Harry Potter or the new Twilight. I mean, come on... wizards and vampires?? Much too unrealistic. So I guess we were thinking that perhaps two realists would cancel each other out and our offspring would be a dreamer. Well, that philosophy is out the window now. After hearing all our friends rave about the behavior success they've had with the Elf on the Shelf, we bought the creepy little guy. The "Elf" comes with a storybook and the premise is that each night while the kids are sleeping the elf flies back to Santa at the North Pole and reports on each child's behavior. The hope is that children will be on their best behavior because they know the elf is watching. And I note, our friends have all had WILD success with the "Elf." But we should've known, a measly elf is no match for a Hurricane.

Shortly after Thanksgiving we placed our elf in Hayley's room and settled into bed to read the story. She immediately noticed the elf. She was pretty suspicious of the elf but listened to the story. When we got to the point in the book that explained how the elf would fly to Santa and report on her behavior, Hayley broke out into tears and kept yelling, "Take em, I don't want da elf." It took several days, but eventually Hayley became okay with the fact that "elf" was around and she even named him Simon. She was NOT intimidated by Simon however and despite our rules that she must not touch Simon or he'd lose his magic, I'm pretty sure she must have pulled Simon aside and let him know how things were gonna go. You see, Hayley was not the least concerned that Simon was going to actually give Santa a bad report. For awhile we chalked it up to short-term, two year old, memory. Last Sunday, we learned the real reason why she didn't feel the need to be on her best behavior around Simon. As we were getting Hayley ready for bed and saying our goodnights, Brian told Hayley to say goodnight to Simon. She looked at him, pointed at him, and said, "Simon... he just a toy." Ah, the magic of Christmas.

We're really not quite sure that Hayley even grasps the whole Santa concept yet. She does seem to understand that it is Baby Jesus' birthday and she thinks that last night's Christmas Eve service was his birthday party (which explains why she saw no need to be quiet... it's a celebration, right?) She was very happy to see her tricycle under the tree this morning and is adamant that it is not for Todd. And Todd seems very happy with his new race track. Simon must have told Santa good stuff!