{"id":1511,"date":"2009-12-14T10:09:05","date_gmt":"2009-12-14T17:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/?p=1511"},"modified":"2009-12-29T13:16:19","modified_gmt":"2009-12-29T20:16:19","slug":"o-tannenbaum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/?p=1511","title":{"rendered":"O Tannenbaum"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems like Christmas starts earlier and earlier each year. \u00a0At school, Leina’s teacher took a poll to find out who had their Christmas tree. \u00a0Everyone had theirs up except Leina and one other girl. \u00a0Mind you, this was on Dec 4th. \u00a0The 4th!!!! \u00a0Being the stubborn Taurus that I am, I refused to be rushed. \u00a0We waiting until this weekend to go hunt our tree and had our usual fabulous time. \u00a0Hiking through the misty tree farm, warming up with hot cocoa, visiting Santa, and purchasing a very large amount of homemade fudge is our family tradition. \u00a0This year it went off without too much of a hitch.<\/p>\n

We found a lovely tree….<\/p>\n

\"Kevin

Kevin the Lumberjack<\/p><\/div>\n

And two sweet little wood-elves…..<\/p>\n

\"Peek-A-Boo!\"

Peek-A-Boo!<\/p><\/div>\n

It was very very very cold so we quickly high-tailed it into the store for some hot cocoa. \u00a0And who did we spy on his sled? \u00a0Santa of course! \u00a0Kulia was all big round eyes and awe while Leina looked at me and said, “that’s not the real Santa, right mom?” \u00a0As he had a very obvious fake beard\/mustache, I quickly assured her that he was, in fact, merely a “Santa helper”. \u00a0As we spoke, Santa hit a lull in the kids so he whipped out his iPhone and started sending text messages. \u00a0The skeptical look appeared in Leina’s eyes so I quickly assured her that the “Santa helper” was texting the elves the toy requests before he forgot. \u00a0This made perfect sense to her, thankfully, and she went back to her hot cocoa. \u00a0Once full, we got in line to meet with the big man himself. \u00a0Now, both girls decided way back in November that they wanted a Pillow Pet for Christmas. \u00a0It’s on this infomercial and they were mesmerized by it. \u00a0It’s a pillow AND a pet! \u00a0Amazing! \u00a0So, Kevin ordered them and they have been hiding in the closet waiting for Christmas. \u00a0 While we stood in line, I decided to prep the girls so they wouldn’t clam up when their turn came. \u00a0I asked Leina, “so, what are you going to ask Santa for?” all casual and assured-like.<\/p>\n

“Ummm, either a Pillow Pet or a DS,” she replied just as easily.<\/p>\n

“Wha? Eh?” My tongue was tied. \u00a0A DS! Where did this come from? \u00a0I quickly launched into a desperate song and dance extorting all the virtues of a Pillow Pet. It’s a pillow! \u00a0And a pet! \u00a0I even stooped so low and to start singing the jingle. \u00a0I was that desperate. \u00a0Still Leina vacillated.<\/p>\n

“Oh honey, don’t ask for a DS. \u00a0If you get one and Kulia doesn’t, there will be fighting and then I’ll have to take it away,” I reasoned desperately. \u00a0Out turn was approaching. \u00a0I had seconds left to make the sale.<\/p>\n

“Oh, yeah,” Leina said thoughtfully. \u00a0Then she turned to her sister and said, “Kulia you ask for a DS too.”<\/p>\n

Santa gestured and let out a jolly bellow. \u00a0I felt sick. \u00a0I had just reasoned myself into not one, but two DSess! \u00a0Thankfully, Kulia came to my rescue.<\/p>\n

“No, I want a Puppy Pillow Pet,” she replied, humming the jungle and walked toward the sleigh.<\/p>\n

“OK, I guess I’ll do a Pillow Pet too,” Leina grumbled as she trudged after her sister.<\/p>\n

The next 10 minutes were nail biters. \u00a0Santa decided to be all jolly and convincing and chatted with the girls about how big they’ve gotten since he saw them last year and how much he liked the cookies we left for him. \u00a0“Yadda yadda yadda,” I thought, “get to the good stuff already!” \u00a0And then, the big question……<\/p>\n

“What do you want me to bring you this year?” \u00a0Santa asked.<\/p>\n

I held my breathe and crossed my fingers. \u00a0Leina hesitated, tilted her head and squinted her eyes.<\/p>\n

“A Pillow Pet,” she replied and I let out a deep sigh.<\/p>\n

“A Pillow Pet!”, Santa chortled, “we make those at the North Pole. \u00a0They’re a pillow….and a pet!” \u00a0Dude, this guy was good. \u00a0I felt a smile returning to my face and I thought I had dodged disaster. \u00a0Until……<\/p>\n

“So, is there anything else Santa can bring you?” that horrid bearded man asked.<\/p>\n

Leina turned to look at me, her eyes huge. \u00a0Something else? \u00a0What! \u00a0No! No! \u00a0Abort on the something else! \u00a0My sweet victory from a moment ago was dissolving be fore my eyes. \u00a0We had told the kids Santa only brings one present! \u00a0Not two! \u00a0One! \u00a0What was this bearded fake doing? \u00a0This was a disaster!<\/p>\n

Shaking my head, I tried to hold Leina’s eye. \u00a0“Um, no, \u00a0just the Pillow Pet”, she replied dutifully.<\/p>\n

“Are you sure,” that wicked Santa fake asked. \u00a0“You’ve been a very good girl this year!”<\/p>\n

Another big eyed appeal met with more desperate head shaking. \u00a0But Leina stuck to the plan and politely declined another request, took her candy cane, and hopped down. \u00a0I was giddy with relief and vowed next year, we were skipping the quack in the red suit and sticking to old-fashioned letter writing. \u00a0I know when to stop pushing my luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems like Christmas starts earlier and earlier each year. \u00a0At school, Leina’s teacher took a poll to find out who had their Christmas tree. \u00a0Everyone had theirs up except Leina and one other girl. \u00a0Mind you, this was on Dec 4th. \u00a0The 4th!!!! \u00a0Being the stubborn Taurus that I am, I refused to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Kqhb-on","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1511"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1526,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511\/revisions\/1526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrissierocks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}