Cindy Lou Who

I have always loved Christmas specials, but the two I just can't have Christmas without watching are "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."  I've seen them each at least 30 times (we'll account for a few years where I may have missed one and to downplay my age!), but I just never get tired of watching them.  Sarah doesn't have much interest in them yet.  We tried "Frosty the Snowman" thinking all the singing, the train, and the rabbit might have kept her attention, but she had other things to do!  She likes the episode of Dora the Explorer where Dora and Boots have to take a present to Santa at the North Pole, and she'll even request it from time to time ("Dora? Boots? Santa?").  I'm not giving up on sharing my love of the Grinch and Charlie Brown, though, and luckily, I have Nana Bev to help me!

Imagine my joy when I opened my mailbox and found a curious, squishy package addressed to Miss Sarah Jane...and it turned out to be THIS:

That's right - a hand-knitted Grinch hat!  Bev has talent (and time!) I can only dream of having...

Check out my little Cindy Lou Who (who was a TOTAL mess coming home from daycare that day for some reason!) deciding which ornament to Grinch from our tree.

Found it! 

    

I finally convinced her to return the ornaments to the tree and we settled down to read some books.  This has been my favorite part of Christmas so far this year.  Sarah will come up to me and say, "Mommy?  Come on, Mommy." Then she'll grab my hand and lead me into the living room where we sit on the floor in front of the tree and read Christmas books.  She calls stockings "socks" and says "ho, ho" when she sees a picture of Santa.  The other day I asked what book she wanted to read and she said, "Cheez Its."  I reminded her that she had just had a snack and she said, "No, Mommy.  Cheez Its."  Then she went and got this book for me to read to her:

 

OH.  Not Cheez Its but JESUS!  Silly Mommy!

So, welcome, Christmas, bring your cheer!
Christmas Day will always be just as long as we have we...