St. Charles' Christmas Traditions

Saturday Kaitlynn, Dave, MawMaw, Johanna and I met MawMaw Tommie in St. Charles for Christmas Traditions. We went last year and want to make this a tradition. We walked around Main Street braving the cold weather and went into the stores to shop. Kaitlynn collected the Character cards. We stopped for some coffee / hot chocolate and cookies. We took Kaitlynn to get her picture taken with the Victorian Santa and she freaked out. While in line she said she wanted to go home and that "this is ridiculous." I spent the next several minutes trying to get her to repeat herself for the camera, but of course she wouldn't. It was hilarious! I was kind of surprised that she was freaked out by that Santa because she didn't mind the other characters and santas. We watched the Santa Parade and then gathered at Berthold Square for storytelling. We ate lunch at Lewis and Clark's. After lunch we walked around and went into more stores.

To view videos from the day, check out my other blog. Need the link, email me at everydaymamadrama@yahoo.com.

Santa at the Caboose

Sunday, December 13th, we took Kaitlynn to get her picture taken with Santa. Santa was so nice! He took his white gloves off to show Kaitlynn that he had hands like her. He talked to her and reassured her. She decided she would stand by him, but only with me next to her. Santa gave her a candy cane and she got a coloring book, too.

Afterwards, we took her to McDonald's to treat her to an ice cream cone.

Christmas Lights and St. Nick's Day

December 5th on the way to MawMaw's, Kaitlynn and I were looking at Christmas lights and talking about how Christmas and the lights were all in celebration of Jesus' birth. We talked about how Christmas is Jesus' birthday. At one point, Kaitlynn started telling me she couldn't see. She said her eyes wouldn't open. When I looked back at her, she had her eyes closed. She is so silly. She opened them when I pointed out the next display of Christmas lights. In the car, we continued working on left and right and colors. She is pretty good at left and right and knows her colors. Dave met us at MawMaw's. After dinner, we drove around in St. Louis Hills looking at Christmas lights. They do such a great display on several of the streets / neighborhoods around there. We saw the lights on Candy Cane Lane and met Santa. Kaitlynn was freaked out and wanted to go home after seeing him. She is just so scared of him. One of the houses in the area, had a radio station set up to the lights display.

When we got home, Kaitlynn got her piece of candy out of the Christmas Countdown Calendar and then put her stocking out for St. Nick.

I wasn't sure if we were going to celebrate St. Nicholas' Day because I thought it was a Catholic tradition. I grew up Catholic and celebrated the day, but I do not consider myself Catholic anymore. We consider ourselves Christian, more specifically Presbyterian. In doing some research, I found out that it is in fact a Christian and German tradition. I am so excited to continue this tradition with Kaitlynn. When I was younger, I put my shoe outside my bedroom door. With Kaitlynn, we are using her stocking and put it in the hallway between the bedrooms.

When Kaitlynn woke up on the 6th, we reminded her about her stocking. She was excited to see what was in it.

Santa's Arrival

Kaitlynn Meeting the Man in Red

We took Kaitlynn to see Santa Claus Sunday (12/23) at West County Mall. We invited the grandparents (my mom and dad and Dave's mom) to come along to see Kaitlynn's first reaction to Santa. Kaitlynn was OK with Santa until I sat her on his lap. She cried so hard. I think we traumatized her. Maybe she will like him better next year. She is only 10 months old.

This is Kaitlynn with her grandma (my mom).