cookies, ornaments, and hillbillies

Is anyone else kind of freaking out that 2010 is a mere two weeks away? DOOOOOD.

I feel like this month has been so full of ambition for getting Christmas things done, but not really much action. I'm seriously impressed with some of the crafts people are making, and the fact that people have their stuff together enough to send out cards is amazing to me.

Yesterday, Julian and I rolled out the dough for our gluten-free sugar cookies. He used the cutters and cut all the shapes out, and then we baked them. We tried making royal icing, but I was in a hurry to finish before dinner, was working with a 5 year old (which makes baking take 3x as long), and on the phone. Probably not the best combination for successful cookies. Which is why it's no surprise that my batch of royal icing ended up looking disgusting and runny and not working at all. We iced two cookies and then called it a day for baking. The cookies looked like they were made by blind armless people, but they tasted great. No offense to any of you blind armless people, but I'm guessing cookie decorating probably isn't your strong suit.

I made another batch of royal icing a little earlier because Julian is still in school, and decorated the cookies. Seriously, I had no idea how difficult decorating cookies would be. What a huge pain in the butt! And I'm wicked impressed with people who manage to do it well. For my first try, I think they turned out pretty cute. I'm sure with a lot more practice, I could get good at these.




Another fun holiday thing we did was make an ornament. I'd like to start a tradition of making a handmade ornament for our family each year. Since I'm bird obsessed, I chose to do an owl. Julian did al the sewing and gluing, and I think he did a pretty great job. This is the first thing he's ever sewn! I picked felt because it's really easy for a kid to work with. Cutting out the pieces without having edges fray makes it a lot easier.


Oh my gosh, Julian has lost yet another tooth. This makes for a grand total of 3 teeth lost in the span of about a month, and he totally has the toothless hillbilly thing down now.

Also, thanks for all of the input on the Santa issue. It seems that none of you were really traumatized when you learned that Santa is made up, so we're going to stick with our normal Santa routine until he decides he's too big for it.

Santa: Man or Myth?

Behold, the Wilson family Christmas card of 2009:



Sadly, this is it for a card. I was going to have pictures printed and send out cards this year, but I think I've waited way too long to do it in a timely manner. So I'm going to give it a positive spin and say that we're saving trees by not using all that paper. Yeah.

We've been listening to lots of Christmas music at our house lately because Julian is obsessed with it, and I think tomorrow we'll be making sugar cookies. I bought some Wilton meringue powder today so we could make royal icing without using raw egg whites. We also bought a nutcracker because Julian is hardcore obsessed with those too. And pretty much anything pertaining to Christmas. He's asking lots of questions about Santa lately, like how he knows what everyone wants, and how do moms and dads have Santa's cell phone number? I told him that when he was born, they gave us that information at the hospital before we left. It's just something all new parents get.

The more I think about it though, the more I don't know if I like the whole notion of Santa. It's fun and everything, and the idea of him is definitely exciting (and kind of creepy...he sees you when you're sleeping?!). But I feel like kind of a jerk for lying to my kid. Do you remember when you found out that Santa wasn't real? Were you devastated? Because I was. I was 5 years old and in kindergarten, and an older boy on the school bus broke it to me. And I remember thinking, that's just not possible. Of course Santa is real....right? And I feel like by lying to Julian about these fictitious holiday characters (Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy), I'm setting him up for disappointment. Part of me feels like kids need to know how hard their parents work to get their presents. Daily, Julian will rattle off a list of crazy expensive things that he wants Santa to bring him, because why not? Santa is magic and he brings free toys to all good girls and boys. And saying things like, "Whoa, buddy. That's pretty expensive...I don't know if Santa can afford that one this year." makes me sound like such a debbie downer. Julian's logic always trumps that too, because he says, "Santa doesn't pay for toys. The elves build them. So he can bring me everything on my list!" Which leads me to yet another lie of, "Santa has to pay the elves an hourly wage though, because they work very hard. And overall, that ends up costing Santa a lot of cash." Also, how the heck do you explain poor kids who get basically nothing for Christmas? Is Santa just that much of an a-hole that he overlooks poor kids? No fair.

I mean seriously, what the hell? It feels crazy to me. But the other part of me that loves fun and everything Christmas wants to keep him believing in Santa for as long as possible. For him to keep his sense of wonderment about all things magical.

What do you think? Do you think parents should tell their kids that Santa is just pretend and still enjoy the holidays, or do you think we should just feed them this lie because that's what everyone does? I just don't know.