A few things about Christmastime 2009

I have so many blog posts that are half-written in my head ... or bits and pieces of Kate updates scribbled down on random pieces of paper. I hope to get these organized and documented in the next few weeks. I did want to remember a few things about Kate and Christmas 2009. These are mainly for her baby book/scrapbook/mama's memory. (Because I used to think I wouldn't forget anything, but now I know better.) :o)

During the Christmas season of 2009 ...

• Kate LOVED playing with the Nativity set "What God Wants for Christmas." Actually, she still plays with it every day. I am not sure if we will put it away with the Christmas things or keep on playing with it, like we do the Resurrection Eggs, which Kate calls "Miss PattyCake's Eggs" (because they are featured in the Miss PattyCake Easter program). Kate calls the Nativity set--which, by the way, is featured in the Miss PattyCake Christmas program--"boxes," but she mispronounces it something like "bosecks" or something like that. Speaking of Miss PattyCake, she liked watching the Miss PattyCake Christmas DVD this season and playing with the "What God Wants for Christmas" set while she watched. She knows the names of the Nativity figures and the corresponding numbers on the boxes that they go to. Thank you, Aunt Cindy, for this wonderful gift! I highly recommend it!
• In addition to the Miss PattyCake Christmas DVD, Kate also very much enjoyed How the Grinch Stole Christmas as well as A Charlie Brown Christmas (she wanted to read the Charlie Brown Christmas book a lot, too). The Yo Gabba Gabba Christmas episode also received a lot of playing time here. Oh yeah, and the latest VeggieTales Christmas DVD, St. Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving. While Kate didn't really sit through the whole DVD on that one, she did particularly enjoy watching bits and pieces and would specifically ask ("Watch Veggies?") to see them on YouTube (even though we have the DVD).
  
• Kate developed a fondness for Santa Claus and did pretty well with her Santa visits this year. We weren't sure what to expect. She very much enjoyed watching her Santa at Phipps DVDs. The one from last year, she calls "Kate Crying," which is an accurate description. She would watch that 40 times in a row if we let her. Seriously. She actually asked to watch it again today, but I declined.
• Her absolute favorite Christmas song is "Unto Us A Child Is Born" from Handel's Messiah. Our church gave out these CDs of Christmas music as a way to invite others to "Be Our Guest" Sunday last month. I took several to give to friends and neighbors. I listened to the CD before I gave them out, of course, and "Unto Us" is one of the songs featured. Well, one CD stayed in the car player for the duration of the Christmas season, I believe. After Kate heard that song, she requested to listen to it over and over (and over) again. "More 'Unto Us,'" is still heard here regularly. We would also play it for her on Tanna's MP3 player as well as on YouTube. She could not get enough. She still will randomly just say "Unto us a Son is given," which melts my heart. This song and verse has deeper meaning in more ways than one, and perhaps I will get around to sharing more about that later.
  
• Kate is starting to understand the Christmas story and the birth of Jesus. It is so sweet to see how her mind works and how much she comprehends.
• She developed an obsession with M&M's. I am not sure exactly how or when this started, but it was sometime over the holidays, I suppose. I am afraid I have created a monster. An M&M monster. She will eat regular-sized M&M's, but she has quite a fondness for the mini variety. When I happened to be at Target the day this particular store marked its Christmas stuff to 75% off, I bought all they had. Which was about 50. Hey, they were only 24 cents each, and we will use them. Believe me, we will use them.
  
• Speaking of sweets, Kate has quite the sweet tooth and also loves candy canes and suckers. I usually have some sort of sucker (lollipop) on hand, and she all of a sudden is requesting a "watermelon sucker" quite frequently.
• Kate enjoyed the tree and the Christmas ornaments a lot this year. We had some issues with some of the lights on the tree--sometimes a string of lights would just decide not to work ... and sometimes it would. When it wasn't working, Kate would say, "Oh no! Christmas tree!" with great concern. She even started saying it when the tree lights weren't turned on. Some of her favorite ornaments were her school bus as well as a red car ornament, which never made it on the tree because Kate carried it around and kept it in her room. The bus was hung toward the top, but she enjoyed looking for it. She had other favorites, too, but those two come to mind right away.
  
• Kate loved looking at Christmas lights. Maybe we can do more of this next year.
• She also really enjoyed the angels at the Walk Through Bethlehem event that we went to, and she likes to point out angels in Christmas decor and books, etc.
• I know there is more, but I better get some sleep. Just wanted to jot these down real quick ...