It took us about 3 days to finish decorating the tree in between our usual everyday activities, but here is our finished Christmas tree, as approved by the little Christmas elf you can see doing her regular inspection:
Today, Santa Claus came to our neighborhood clubhouse to have cookies and storytime with the kids, and then take pictures and ask them what they each wanted for Christmas. We decided to take Emma, not knowing how she would respond to Santa (but having a pretty good guess).
We were told to be there by 2:30 this afternoon, so that the kids could get checked in and decorate cookies or do other crafts, and then Santa would read a story at 3:00 and then do pictures with each child. We got checked in and plopped Emma down in front of the Christmas tree to see if we could get a nice picture. These were the best of the bunch:
We still had some time before Santa was scheduled to arrive, so we decorated some cookies. Emma wanted a yellow "E" and some sprinkles. Which is exactly what she got!
Not super Christmasy, but hey, it's her cookie and she can do it however she wants.
By about 3:30, everyone was getting pretty antsy, with no Santa in sight. Not good when you have a room full of about 30-40 young kids who have been eating sugar cookies and drinking hot chocolate! It was getting pretty rowdy, and Emma was starting to say she wanted to go home. Luckily, we took a breath of fresh air, came back inside, and waited it out until he finally showed up at 3:40. Needless to say, there was no time for a story -- they had a 2nd session scheduled for 4:30, so they needed to hurry up and get our group out the door! I really think Emma would have enjoyed storytime with Santa, but oh well. Fortunately, we happened to be standing in a spot where Santa had to walk past us to get to his chair. He came over, looked at Emma, and said, "Hi there! How are you?" Thumb planted firmly in mouth, she cowered and turned her face into my shoulder, refusing to speak. Santa moved on and started doing pictures with the kids. While we were waiting for our turn, we asked Emma about four times if she wanted to go and sit with Santa. She said "NO" each time, so we finally decided that there was no need to stay any longer and went home. So we didn't get to see Santa for very long, but at least she got to have some exposure to him and how the whole sitting-on-Santa's-lap thing works. Maybe next year...
Tim did manage to snap a photo of Mr. Claus before he started seeing the kids. Looks like this is the only picture Emma will have to remember her time with Santa in 2008!
A close-up of her holiday shirt she wore today. It says, "Good things come in small packages." Perfect shirt for a little squirt!
One more cute story -- Grandma & Grandpa H brought Emma a stuffed bumblebee toy from the FAO Schwartz store when they were in Las Vegas last week. It still has the tag on it, so this afternoon, she announced that she wanted to read the bumblebee's tag. She opened it up and started, "Once upon a time, there was a bumblebee..." Of course, it doesn't say that on the tag. I guess she just figured any good story should start out that way!
...It will come as no surprise to most of you that Emma was, in fact, a good girl this year. So Santa left lots of presents for her under the Christmas tree while we were all fast asleep. We managed to keep her from opening them until Grandma & Grandpa H and Aunt Laura arrived, but just barely! 
Grandma & Grandpa K stopped by for a little bit to see what Santa brought for Emma. Then the Haggerty crew came over for brunch and more presents. 
Emma & Nathan made a special plate for Great Grandma with their handprints on it. As Megan pointed out, they are cleverly giving the previous generation's "favorites" a run for their money. Watch out, Joe & Laura -- you've got competition!
Grandpa H had the pleasure of putting together Emma's new play kitchen while the rest of us snacked and socialized.
The men ended up hanging out outside...
...while the women sat around and talked at the kitchen table. How typical!
The kitchen was a big hit once it was all put together!
I swiped this one from Nathan's blog. Through the magic of technology, Uncle Don was able to get a family picture. We'll have to work on photoshopping Steve's head in there somewhere! 
