My daughter found boot prints in ashes on the hearth. There were muddy reindeer hoof prints on the front sidewalk and a sleigh bell, which apparently fell off the sleigh, or a reindeer harness. [/img] Then, there was a note from Santa by the plate, where the milk & cookies had been. And then all this in the floor by the Christmas tree. [/img]
WOW ~ did Santa ever deliver :?: :?: Two questions... how did you make the reindeer hoof prints and is your daughter spoiled Merry Christmas to you and your family Gaylyn
prints & spoiled Well, the hoofprints I made with mud. I looked up the reindeer hoofprint on the Internet & then tried to re-create them on the sidewalk. The discarded (fallen off) sleigh bell was easier. As for spoiled, I do think there's some of that, but I've been told over & over - daddies are supposed to spoil their little girls. I do try to teach her that "stuff" is not the source of happiness. She has a DVD of the Veggie Tales - Madame Blueberry. Madame Blueberry cries & cries because she wants new stuff. She goes to "StuffMart" & loads up. It destroys her hoouse (up in a tree - too heavy). She finds true happiness being experienced by poor veggies living on the ground. Lesson: a thankful heart is a happy heart and stuff doesn't make you happy. We periodically go through her toys & cull out the ones she no longer plays with, or has outgrown & give them to friends, relatives, or charities. It's about time to do that again.
She must have been so excited to see evidence of Santa's visit (beyond the gifts) Not everyone gets to see hoof prints! Wow WTxDaddy-that IS a lot of stuff - she must have been a VERY good girl this year!
gifts Well, not all the gifts you see were hers. The unwrapped stuff was hers from Santa. The wrapped stuff included gifts to her from everybody, gifts from her to everybody, gifts between my wife & her siblings, gifts to & from my father, gifts between spouses - a total of 9 family units had gifts under this tree - some just added this morning when they came over. It is too much, I admit, but I love Christmas & I shop year-round for gifts for my daughter. If it looks educational, or like something she'd enjoy, I buy it. Most of it goes into the hiding closet, where it stays 'til Christmas. Other stuff gets brought out for other events - birthday, Valentine's Day - stuff like that. My wife gets on me about it, but I cannot stop! A buddy of mine told me, we were spoiling our daughter. I pointed out to him, as he was having kids in his 20's, my wife & I had ours at ages 42 & 40. We had no debt at the time. Our house was paid for, we had 1 vehicle payment at the time, so we had more disposable income for kid-spoiling. Since we've moved into thisd house almost 3 years ago, we now have a house payment & are almost done with the 1 vehicle payment. I'm still spoiling her, though, as a daddy should to the best of his ability.
I loved the reindeer hoof prints, lost bell, and the 'Santa' footprints. We did exactly the same type of thing for our kids when they were little and it made Christmas soooo special from them. Getting a note hand written by Santa was the big event of the day. I still 'spoil' my children even now they are all grown up. :-D
It's fun when you've got kids in the family, and you did a great job making it special. We've got a 4 year old niece that makes me feel like a kid again during the holidays! Happy New Year!
