this was christmas

Before it becomes the Christmas of 2013, I would like to document the Christmas of 2012, mostly because I realized that she was THE perfect age for Santa miracle this time. The concept, the wish, the anticipation, the negotiation, the patience and of course, the pay off.

But we begin with the annual pre-Christmas illness. Yuki is not a sickly kid (I am convinced it's because I let her eat stuff that she drops on the floor -Philip. Okay, back to Mimi.), but about once a year, and almost always right before Christmas, she gets the pukies. In 2011, she chose (well, her body chose) the airplane from Tokyo to Seattle to do that in, which was awesome because I WAS TRAVELING ALONE WITH HER. So this year it seemed much more manageable.  Thankfully, she doesn't get it badly. And interestingly, Philip managed to miss it again.   

Ice pack, couch nap and endless movies.

Being sick is the best.

Then the photo shoot for our annual Christmas card commenced at the last minute, which is also a tradition.

 Roman is a very patient dog. Philip hates dog costumes and is still apologizing.

We were glad that she got over her illness in time for the visit to her "Grand Pal" during which, they did a gift exchange. We were instructed by Mr. Hansen to fill a shoe box with some nice things, which we did including Yuki's original poetry book (a post to come on that). Skippy (yes, that is her name) who seems to adore Yuki gave her was so touched by everything in the box. She gave Yuki a lovely soap and $10 because she is unable to go shopping, which is equivalent of 10 weeks' allowance, which is huge. Yuki purchased some trinkets from a Japanese store.

 "..and here is a tooth brush for your teeth."

 Yuki suspected this Santa was not real. "Just a man pretending."

We appreciated Christmas trees everywhere, including a cafe we visit most Thursdays in between regular school and Japanese class.

 Rehearsing for Christmas morning?

We took a walk through "Candy Cane Lane" which is a street not far from our house that goes all out in Christmas lights and decorations. People from other neighborhoods drive through this street just to see. We parked and walked.

 In the rain. Because that is how it's done in Seattle

On December 23rd, as I was tucking her in, I had a chat with Yuki about how Christmas morning was going to go. She was not to wake us up until it was light outside (which in Seattle is, like, 8:00 am) and that she is NOT to open any gifts without us. She listened carefully and nodded. Then on the morning of December 24th, she woke up at around 8:30 and ran into our room saying "Wake up, Daddy! It's Christmas!" 

I think my talk somehow confused her even though she had the Playmobil Advent Calendar and knew that it was two days away. I was not thinking. When Philip told her that it was not so, she first thought he was joking (totally within the realm of possibility) but then realized it was true and broke down crying. But then we told her that it's a good thing because we are not ready for Santa. We haven't baked cookies and it would have been rude and it's going to be an all day project so our day will be spent getting ready for him, which, she bought and recovered nicely.

So then we baked. But first, we had to go get some cookie cutters.

And test drive the sled.

Then we got down to business:

And while the cookies were cooling, we took Roman to the park

 

During which, Yuki pretended to be a parent to bears and wrote in her journal 
while they "played."

Then we frosted.

This did actually take us right up until dinner time so we ended up looking like we knew what we were talking about. Yuki wrote a nice note for Santa and placed the cookies by the fire place with a cup of milk.

The note reads: Dear Santa, I hope you like the cookies. Have a safe trip. Next stop, Jennifer's! xoxo Love, Yuki

After she fell asleep, we brought out the gifts which were wisely wrapped two nights before, at Philip's suggestion, which was such a good one because I had a project that was unfinished and kept me up until 1:00am. 

We did not take a photo of it this year, but Yuki has a tree in her room also. It is an authentic 1950s-era tinsel tree that used to belong to my parents. Yuki had requested that Santa puts her presents under her tree so we selected three key gifts, wrapped them with brown paper, and put a sleigh bell on one because she has been reading the Polar Express, and left a note that said "There is more in your stocking."

The reason why we divided the gifts into some from us and some from Santa is so that she also understands about the concept of giving for Christmas. Each of us took her out to shop for the other (a lovely idea once again by Mr. Dadoo Husband) and we told her that we also went out on a super secret shopping trip to get her some things. Things also arrived from Tokyo and California, which is harder to disguise as from Santa so we just mixed it all up.

On the morning of December 25th, the real, actual Christmas day, Yuki dutifully came in shortly after 8:00am and this time exclaimed, "Santa left three presents under my tree!!!!"

So we went to open them. She noticed the bell and said, 
"Santa gave me a bell because he knew I love 'The Polar Express!!"

Then she opened gift 1 which was Toto from Wizard of Oz*.   

*We went to see a production at Seattle Children's Theatre, which she loved and they announced at the end of the production to please visit their gift shop and perhaps take your own Toto home. Yuki dragged us there only to find out that it was sold out. There was a melt down. I wanted to punch the House Manager who did not bother to check in with the gift shop before plugging it, but hey, I work at a theatre so I let that go. I suggested to Yuki that we make a request to Santa and maaaaybeeee he will bring it. Then I promptly sent Philip to Amazon.com and we got one. Apparently there has to be some sort of Christmas miracle around a stuffed animal every year in our house. 

She opened it and said, "Santa remembered I really really wanted this!!" 

This 'Santa' dude is getting a lot of credit for our work.

Then she opened gift 2 which was Jumanji ("Santa knew I love Chris Van Allsburg!!"), then gift 3 which was the book version of Spirited Away ("!!!").

Then we proceeded downstairs to open more gifts in the stockings.  Then we proceeded to the gifts from each other under the tree, but about two presents in, she said, 

"What else did Santa give me?"

With that, Philip began finding presents and ripping the tag off that said it was from us and handed them to her. She was so committed to her faith in Santa that one point, she even said, "I think Santa must have borrowed our wrapping paper."

And so we went on, opening things from Santa, then Grandma Honey, then some from each other.

Grandma Honey comes through with the hysterical princess boots. They ARE super-warm.

A little bling for Mama.

 

The Project! A 'Spirited Away' costume. Handmade by Mama.

And once again, our living room was covered in wrapping paper as it should and Christmas morning was over.

The only day of the year I wish our fireplace was not gas-powered.

Sadly, the living room looks like this a lot.

Yuki did show much sadness when it was all done as she did for Halloween ("I'm so sad it's over!") But then we distracted her by doing things like washing Roman:

In 38-degree weather.

And putting some IKEA furniture together:

She's "helping."

I wonder how long we have until the Santa magic is gone. I hope we have a couple more years.