Santa Clause and Excitment

Today Addison had the opportunity of meeting Santa Clause!! He is actually a man from our ward at church (the Relief Society President's husband) but don't tell Addison that because we don't want to spoil the secret. Haha...Anyways, I was feeling kind of nervous as to how she would react to him. A lot of babies REALLY dislike meeting Santa and she has been going through a shy phase so I thought it would end in tears. This was not the case though! She didn't really smile at him but she didn't cry either. She just looked stunned. Towards the end of her visit, I think she was more interested in Santa's dog and cat than Santa himself. Here are a couple of pictures from her visit:

Addison with Santa. She is wearing the Christmas dress that my Mom and I made. It isn't what we had originally planned on making but my mom got sick the weekend we planned to make her dress so we went to the alternative. I think it turned out nicely. Also, notice how she has a death grip on that beard. Hair holding is how she calms herself.


Santa even had a gift for Addison!

There was a bunny inside! She loves bunnies so this gift was perfect.

Addison and Santa finally beginning to bond.

On another note, we had planned to meet up with my sister and brother-in-law after this to go see the Chronicles of Narnia in Albany. We did meet up but it seemed that nothing was going as planned. The movie ended up being in only 3-D format which would have cost us $12 per person and instead of being at the time we thought it had started an hour earlier. So we went to my sister's place, got some Panda Express and settled in to play Mario Kart with my bro-in-law's father and brother. Technology is a wonderful thing because they were in Iowa (my bro-in-law's father and brother) and we were able to connect up with them over the internet and race each other. The whole time they were on speaker phone so we were able to smack talk (which is a VERY important thing when racing). It was a wonderful time full of friendly competitiveness. After that, we read the Christmas story and started driving home.

On the way home, we turned one of the tight curves on Suver road (for all of you who know that road you know what I am talking about...when I say tight I mean they are more like taking a turn than a curve) and happened upon a fresh accident. A younger man, probably around Ralph's age was standing on the side of the road next to his car that had gone into the ditch and hit a utility pole. He was ok physically which we were grateful for but mentally he was shaken up. Let me just say that if you are an LDS Church member and you have daughters, MAKE THEM GO TO GIRL'S CAMP! This is a true testament to the usefulness of attending it. I could tell that he was going in to shock and all I could think of was A) Make him put his coat on to keep him warm and B) Make him talk about anything...just make him keep talking. This knowledge all came flooding back to me from girl's camp.

The young man was flustered and unsure of what to do. All he knew was he needed to call his wife of only 6 months. He got her coming on her way from Sweethome and a tow truck as well. He didn't really know if he should call the police or not because no one was hurt but I told him that because he had hit a utility pole he had to because there was no way of telling if the pole was ok. I dialed 911, spoke to the operator who patched me through to the sheriff's office who responded to the scene. The whole time the young man is telling us that he is ok and that we could go home but i was adamant about staying and making sure he was taken care of first.

Finally, after about 30 minutes, the sheriff came. He assessed the situation. Then, he did something that caught me completely off guard. He asked Ralph and me to step away with him for a moment. I thought he was going to ask about the situation or something. NOT EVEN CLOSE! He asked us if we had been drinking!! I was so surprised by the question that for a moment I couldn't respond. It was so far from what I was thinking he was going to ask. I assured him that I had not and Ralph did the same and then it was time to go. I will probably never know what happened to the young man but all I know is that I helped someone in need. I am grateful that I got to serve the Lord on this Christmas Eve. I am grateful that I had some knowledge of what needed to happen when I needed it. I am grateful for my family and for us making it home safely.

Merry Christmas everyone!