Santa's trip 2009

What a great Christmas we had this year! Lyla has been so excited about the entire Christmas package this year - Santa Claus, Reindeer, Snowmen, lights, Christmas trees.. The whole thing! Everything has been new and exciting for her and she has just loved everything. We celebrated Santa's arrival early. We arranged for his visit to come a couple nights early because of our travelling schedule and it was such a great idea. Last year Santa came after we returned from our trips to Canada and it wasn't the same hype. Christmas felt over and it was as exciting. This year was great. I could hardly sleep because I was so excited for Lyla to wake up on Christmas morning to see her gifts.

On 'Christmas Eve' we drove around the neighbourhood and looked at the Christmas lights and decorations. Everything was snow covered and really pretty. Oh yeah- I forgot before we went for our drive, Santa himself called Lyla on the phone. We came home and spread out some Reindeer food to guide Santa's reindeer. We then came in and got Santa's milk and cookies ready. Lyla taste tested the cookies and said they were 'yummy'. We also put out some carrots for 'Reindeer food'. We then hung Lyla's stocking by the chimney in hopes that Santa would come that night.

Sure enough, Lyla was a lucky girl and you can see the gifts that Santa left for Lyla under the tree. Lyla was really spoiled as she had been a really good girl this year. Lyla's big gift was a kitchen that she now has in our kitchen and makes 'cakes' while I am making dinner. Here is Lyla opening a gift (actually this picture was taken after our trip, as we didn't get all of our gifts open on our Christmas morning). She was really good at opening gifts. She would open a gift and play with it for a while and then move on to the next gift. It was a really enjoyable Christmas morning.
Here is Lyla enjoying her kitchen.

One of the highlights of the morning was a plush horse stable with 2 horses. Lyla had seen this when we were Christmas shopping and loved it so much. She was so happy to see it on Christmas morning and every day she has played with her 'neigh-neighs'. She also got this train and she plays with this daily as well. It is a wooden train and it has blocks that come off and you rebuild it. Lets just say that her train is very frequently 'brookie', which is broken in Lyla lingo.
Those are just some highlights from Santa's arrival this Christmas. It was a great morning that we all enjoyed very much. Thanks Santa for making a stop for our Lyla!!