All I Want for Christmas

Before we get on to all the holiday happenings around here,  we have to make note of the REALLY big news, which is that this little kiddo finally lost some teeth!

Two teeth, to be exact, and those only came out with a serious amount of prodding from the dentist.  Olivia was NOT going to have her teeth pulled.  She was afraid it would hurt. She was afraid it would bleed.   I didn't blame her. I didn't want her to have her teeth pulled out either.  I know, I KNOW, she is 6 and 1/2 years old.  Her baby teeth are not going to last forever.  But she is my littlest  She is supposed to be a BABY for crying out loud, not this big girl with big teeth,  and I was not emotionally prepared for this to happen so suddenly, not to mention twice over,  in the dentist office.  I had just spent 3 and 1/2 hours in the exact same chair the day before, having oral surgery and bone grafts and all kinds of nerve shattering procedures done.   That room was not bringing back pleasant memories, and now that darn dentist was telling me he was going to rip my child's teeth from her head before they or she or me was ready.   But those darn big girl teeth were pushing up behind the baby teeth, in completely the wrong place, and her baby teeth were not even a little bit loose.  Scott the dentist wanted to pull out all four of her bottom teeth, but I balked, so he agreed to only do two.

In the end, she was very brave, and told Scott the dentist that he could pull out her teeth any day.  Of course, I didn't have my camera to get a shot of her leaned back in the dentist chair, in sunglasses, because the lights were too bright, holding four little princess dolls in one hand and the suction thing in the other as the dentist was pulling her teeth out with something that looked exactly like a pair of pliers Dan has in his toolbox.   Her favorite part was the suction thing, that she got to be in charge of.   Her least favorite part was the strawberry medicine that most definitely did not taste like strawberry.  She was quite miffed, and vocal about her displeasure at being mislead over the flavor.  Anyway, the two teeth popped out pretty easily, and the next two nights will be a revolving door at our house, with the tooth fairy making a visit tonight, and the Big Guy due for a visit tomorrow night.  I just hope that flaky tooth fairy remembers to show up

Santa is coming for sure.  We saw him on Monday night, finally.  Olivia asked him for a Jessie doll and a cat.  He asked her if she wanted a real cat and thankfully, she said no, just a stuffed one.  Whew. Dodged a bullet there. 

None of the other kids could be convinced to sit on Santa's lap.  So after the visit to Santa we walked around and looked at the lights and displays at the Ogden Municipal building until we were literally freezing our butts off.  That took about 20 minutes.

And tonight was the annual Gingerbread Shacks with Cousins Event, brought to us mostly by the efforts of Amy and Co.  She and her kids came up, and brought most of the supplies with them.  We had a great time creating and decorating, and amazingly, these creations have turned into more castles than shacks.

Jacek and Will teamed up on this one, complete with Santa going down the chimney and a bunker in the back.

These are mine and Olivia's.  At some point in the evening, I had grand plans for some sort of stable or something, but my motivation eventually trickled into a theory  to just keep loading candy on it until it looked Christmas-ey.  Olivia went for a theme of snowmen and simplicity.

Here is Audrey and Sydney's Santa castle.

Views from the inside, where Santa's throne sits on a carpet of gummy bears.  Awesome!

 Amy and Stockton teamed up on this snow covered pueblo.  We were supposed to pick a winner, but they were all way above and beyond our wildest expectations.   We have such amazing and talented people in this family. 

Duncan is amazing and talented too, but he is not really into sticky things touching his fingers.  So his contribution to the evening was to work on the computer game he is making, and helping us eat candy. But he was feeling very merry about getting his game finished.

And now,  tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  We aren't ready.  But it's coming either way, so bring it on!!  I'm gonna start wrapping!!