Christmas at 18 months

Kalina's 18th month of life, that of December, has seen her very intently decorating a gingerbread house at a playdate, "helping" roll out and cut Christmas cookies, twirling around the house to Christmas music, activating our tree lights, watching damp snow through the window, reading Christmas stories and pointing out Christmas lights whenever we saw them.

And then it was Christmas Eve. Amid the flurry of a last-minute grocery-store trip, tentative napping and a very successful fishing outing (seriously?), we remembered the reason for the season and made it to church.

Grandpa joined us for the Christmas Eve service, and so we acquired three candle holders to hold through the program to sing Silent Night by candlelight at the end. We wondered how Kalina would do during an evening service, but we'll never know due to the pervasiveness of distraction these objects provided. About half of the service was spent with Kalina sitting on my lap and handing the candle holders to Grandpa and Daddy, and the other half was spent with Kalina sitting on my lap and feeding the candles in the holders to Grandpa and Daddy. Everyone had a good time, and by the end Grandpa and Daddy each managed to wrest a candle away from Kalina and set them aglow. (I thought it best not to try to hold a flaming object while my daughter tried to grab it out of my hand.)

Later that evening Matt and I thoroughly enjoyed playing Santa as we carried downstairs the toy kitchen Grandma got for Kalina and put it in front of the tree (we'd be seeing Grandma later in Minnesota for New Year's, but for obvious reasons preferred not to bring the kitchen on the plane with us). We covered it with a festive green bedsheet and stuck a bow on top. Perfect.

Christmas magic smiled on all of us the next morning when Kalina woke all of us at 6:30 instead of the week's trend of 5:30. How did she know? However, that's still a painful hour so we lounged a bit before heading downstairs.

We drew out the suspense even more by eating a healthy breakfast as Kalina chalked the sheet-covered lump in front of the Christmas tree up to another one of Mommy and Daddy's strange ideas and we all tried to pretend it didn't exist so we could save it for a big "reveal."

And finally it was time.

It was easy enough to get Kalina to open her first couple presents, but once we got to the $1 set of tiny Play-Doh canisters she couldn't be bothered to unwrap any more, large green-sheet-covered gift in the middle of the room notwithstanding. We still have yet to actually open the little cans and dig out the Play-Doh inside, by the way. They're good enough closed, and are remarkably delicious as pretend food.

Somehow Matt coaxed Kalina through one more wrapped gift, and then we hurriedly got set to have the girl unveil her big present before she wandered off entirely. Fortunately, once we'd hiked up the sheet a little, video camera rolling, she was hooked and immediately put the kitchen to work. We all ate toy eggs and Play-Doh canisters, and then rummaged through the ever-popular recycle bin treasure trove for discarded boxes and such Kalina could use in her kitchen. I donated a pot and some plastic dishes, and Kalina merrily put things away in the "refrigerator" and filled bowls with imaginary water to her heart's content.

And then we all ate lots of sugary food, but I saved the least-sugary for Kalina. She also received Goldfish crackers on demand, and raisins as well. After all, it's Christmas! (Unfortunately, she was a bit confused to see that this trend didn't continue on December 26th.)

Grandpa and Uncle Tom showed up, as well as some friends of ours with a little boy 2 weeks older than Kalina. We all had a big dinner at 2:30, and Kalina made up for her previous snacking by diving into the roast beef and even some potatoes. On my lap, of course, because she was too scared to sit in the high chair or be put down for even a second (and besides, the guest needed to use it).

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with Grandpa and handing things to Uncle Tom. "Look, a ball made of foil! Look, a bowl! Look, a couch pillow! Look, a plastic egg!" Kalina is quite the hostess and wants to make sure everyone is entertained. Sometimes she tries a little too hard.

We have, of course, been taking lots of pictures this season and Kalina had completely gotten the hang of it. She loves holding my camera up to her nose (yes, her nose) and snapping pictures of cats, the Christmas tree and Mommy and Daddy, as well as her new kitchen (it's interesting to see what's important to her). She loyally wears the wristband while holding it, so I don't worry too nearly as much as I should about it falling. Best of all, the camera doesn't even have to be turned on. We just say "click" and the memory is preserved.

What's more, Kalina's become a pro at posing for pictures. "Time to take your picture!" we say, and she dashes off to sit in front of the Christmas tree. She knows just how it works.

Christmas wasn't quite over yesterday, though. In the hullabaloo of yesterday's gifts and the fact that we thought it somewhat wrong to force our child to open her presents, even to the point of tears, we saved a couple for this morning and they were very well received. We'll also exchange gifts later with various other groupings, including travel to snowy/wet Minnesota. Stay tuned for relatively up-to-date reportings on Kalina's festivities. After a month of preparation, the season has still barely begun!

Photo 1: Christmas morning! Photo 2: Christmas Eve Photo 3: Getting ready for the big present Photo 4: Filling a measuring cup with imaginary water Photo 5: Kalina's new Christmas outfit from "Aunt" Renee! Photo 6: Kalina and Mommy Photo 7: Kalina and Grandpa Photo 8: Taking a picture of Mommy Photo 9: Unwrapping Photo 10: Decorating a gingerbread house a few weeks ago Photo 11: Playing with Frederick on Christmas (notice the plethora of argyle!) Photo 12: A giant Christmas Eve crappie Photo 13: A large Christmas Eve catfish Video: Kitchen play