Thursday, December 27, 2007

Buffalo came to visit!

We have never done Santa at the Hutch. It's not that we have a problem with Santa it's just that Kodiak has always been such a serious kid that he never bought into it at all. For him, Christmas = Jesus Birthday and that was enough. So we just didn't start the tradition with the rest of them. We have our own traditions that are equally as fun as my memories of Santa as a child. Up until just last year Isaac called Santa, Buffalo, we are not sure where on earth it came from but to Iceman that guy in the red suit with the white beard was "Buffalo" there was no correcting him on it.
Christmas 2007 Buffalo came to visit for the very first time. Iceman and Turtle were all tucked in their beds for about 20 minutes and then Ice comes flying down the stairs "Mooooommm... we forgot to put cookies out for Santa". I'm sure the look on my face was something else. I said "When did we start doing that?" He says, "NOW!!!" So we get the gingerbread cookie he'd decorated at the VFD party over a week before and put it on a plate, Ice runs to the fridge in the basement to get an "ice cold Coca-Lola" for Santa, I get down a glass, Ice puts out a napkin and then charges back up to bed. I look at the Hero in complete bewilderment. Considering they had just had discussion earlier in the day and comments from the Turtle during the traditional reading of the Hallmark Pop-Up book of "The Night Before Christmas" about Santa not being real. We figure we will play up the fun for them if this is what Iceman wants to do. So I quickly open a yahoo email so Buffalo can send them an email thanking them for the cookie and Coke. Also reminding them to be good boys. I figure Santa surely doesn't write letters with his right hand like my left-handed Santa did to leave with the empty plate of cookies. Santa has to be online in these times. We had one gift for them that wasn't going to be wrapped anyway that we had planned to build and put by the tree. We opted to put it outside their bedroom door with a tag that read "To Iceman and Turtle From: Santa". We laid their stockings alongside it (we don't have a fireplace).

The next morning was like a comedy act. They were both so over the moon about this cool fire station that Santa had left them and all the neat things in the stocking that he'd left. I found this especially hilarious because Iceman had chosen several things for Turtle's stocking while we were shopping and vice versa. They went on and on about how the elves built this fire station. After all the excitement of the stocking and Santa gift died down a little they came barrelling downstairs to find a plate with crumbs (I'd grated some off the cookie that was horribly stale and hid the rest of it deep in the garbage) and crumbs on the table. An empty glass and just a sip left in the can. Ice grabs the wrinkled up napkin in disgust and says "Look what Santa did to the napkin!" Turtle surveys the crumbs on the table and declares "That Santa is a PIG!!" I'm dying trying to contain my laughter. They go to grab Kodiak and La Diva from the dungeon and are blabbering on about Santa to them. They look at me completely confused and I tell them to just roll with it.


We get caught up in all the rest of the gifts. Everyone was spoiled rotten and we had such a fun morning together. As we were getting organized to head out to my parents I asked Iceman to take this box down to recycle. Being a rookie with this "Santa" thing I didn't even think about it being the box that the fire station had came in. He is halfway down the stairs and comes charging up saying "those elves didn't make that fire station, it came in this box!!" The Hero says they can't carry it built and says he can't believe they didn't hear them building it outside their door. Turtle says "I heard that hammering but I was sleepy". Then we remember the email and show them that which saves the day. The guilty looks on their faces when Santa said "there better not be any pouting... this means you Turtle" and "there better not be any sassing... this means you Iceman" were priceless.


I'm still not quite sure if they have convinced themselves that Santa is the real deal all of a sudden or they are just playing an elaborate trick on all of us. It made for an unexpected bunch of laughs.


We had made rice krispie shapes for Jesus' birthday cake this year and the littles and La Diva had a blast decorating the snowmen and bells. We had it after singing Happy Birthday on Christmas Eve. La Diva found the pickle but Turtle was working as part of the team so he helped her open the present which was the DVD of Elf. Kodiak read the Christmas story from Luke while we lit the Christ Candle in our advent wreath. The Hero read the Small One and the Night Before Christmas. The kids begged for just one more story so they chose another from our stack of seasonal books, unfortunately the name escapes me at the moment.


We had a nice dinner up at the 'rents. It was good to have some extended family together. We ate too much as usual but it was a relaxing day. Which was a pleasant surprise. We didn't get home til after midnight.

It's hard to believe it is all over. We spent Boxing Day in our jammies enjoying all the fun new things that the crew got for Christmas. We ventured out briefly today to spend money and GCs that were received as gifts but the icy roads had us heading home quickly. Tomorrow we hope to get the rest of the returns done. La Diva needs to find a replacement for her iCat that won't work. It's the one thing she really wanted and it was such a disappointment that once we got it out of the package, batteries in, etc that it just didn't work. I hope that it won't be as hard to find as a Wii, another thing they want to spend Christmas money on.

5 comments:

  1. Cute! Glad "Buffalo" came to visit and the boys were thrilled! Sounds like you had a lovely Christmas! :D

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  2. Can we come and visit one Christmas Kerry? I am sure Olivia would love a white christmas one day (and so would her mum!)

    You paint such a beautiful picture of your family. I am so pleased you had a lovely day celebrating the greatest gift of all.

    Love janine

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  3. I absolutely loved reading about your family's Christmas!!! Sounds like is was a fabulous time, all around!!

    ~ Cyn <3

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  4. Janine, you are welcome to visit anytime! We'd love nothing more than to share our Christmas with you and your family!

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  5. That sounds like one heck of a great Christmas!!!

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