Merry Christmas Eve

(I know it's not the clearest picture, but here is our Christmas tree all decorated and presents all wrapped up!)

Well, it's finally here! It's Christmas Eve and I'm so excited! I can't wait until tomorrow morning when we go downstairs and see Hayden open all her presents. I'm not really doing any presents from Santa this year since she doesn't really understand it yet, but maybe next year. We also only got her 2 toys and some clothes. I know my parent's and in-laws will have plenty of toys and goodies for her, so I didn't want to over do it. Plus, her birthday is next week too, so I'm sure she'll get more than enough toys from both events!


We did take Hayden to see Santa on Tuesday night at the mall (finally!). Unfortunately Dan couldn't come with us, but Hayden did pretty well considering... She was so excited when we first got to the Christmas village at the mall. She saw Santa and was trying every way possible to get through the fencing and rope to get to Santa. There was a decent size line to wait, so Bianca and Jeremy went and got their last minute shopping done while I waited in line with Hayden. She was pretty well entertained by the other kids running around and she tried to join in the fun as best she could. It was more like she walked around and around the stroller and made faces at the other kids. Very cute!

Finally it was getting close to our turn and we could just barely see where Santa was sitting from where we were. Hayden tried desperately to lean forward to see Santa. Then it was our turn to go up. I put Hayden down to see what her reaction would be. I didn't want to force her to sit with Santa! She shocked me! She walked all the way from the entrance to the Christmas village all the way up to Santa with the biggest grin on her face! I wish I could have captured it on film, but they don't allow cameras in that area! Once she got to Santa, she just looked up at him in absolute amazement. Then it happened, Santa reached down to pick her up and she lost it! She started crying and screaming bloody murder! She was doing so well, I guess she just wanted to see Santa! So I sat on a stool and put her on my knee while Santa sat behind us. He would leave forward just in time to take the picture and sit back before Hayden turned around to look at him. It worked out pretty well, but I have to say, her picture came out pretty funny! She's not exactly smiling, nor is she crying. She's just trying to figure out what the heck is going on! I need to scan the photo on the computer, and as soon as I do I'll post it here!