Some holiday craziness

For all of the fun that the holiday season is, I have some stories to remind us all of the insanity it can bring as well. We'll start with Christmas pictures. I had been putting them off because my aunt had offered to finish the girl's holiday dresses that my Grandma had started before she passed away last month. She finished them quickly and they are beautiful! I never want the girls to outgrow them, but I know they will all too quickly. So, we got the dresses and had to take the pics. in the following couple of days to get the cards ordered.

I did not bring the girls to a portrait studio to have pictures taken because the ones in the mall drive me crazy with their 1o minute appointments to capture your child at their cutest and always running forever behind so you have crabby kids by the time they get to you. Sounds like fun, no? That's why I have avoided it since just after Sarah was born. I also usually get better pictures at home with way less stress.

So anyway, I get the girls ready (tights and all, and they both HATE tights) and Nate and I try to get some cute pictures. The top 3 pictures are our failed attempts and the fourth one is what you will be getting in the mail. It's not perfect, but it's the best these tired parents could get. Oh, and I didn't add the attempts that included Sarah screaming bloody murder because we were trying to get her to sit when she wanted to stand or we were taking away her beloved pacifier. So, when you look at the Christmas card from the Hansen's this year, know that lots of blood, sweat, and tears went into creating it.

Another story, Shelby is really into the Santa thing this year. For the first time, she gets it and asked us about going to see Santa when we told her that you can visit him to tell what you would like for Christmas. The girl was on our case all last week to go and see Santa. On Friday, we decided to bite the bullet and take the girls to the mall.

Mind you, we have never taken the girls to see Santa before. We weren't trying to deprive them somehow, but we know our girls and how they react to new people. We didn't really want to embarass ourselves in front of a mall full of people with a screaming child.

Back to the story. So we get to the mall and the line is looooonnnnngggg. The whole time we're trying to entertain the girls and pumping Shelby up for talking to Mr. Claus. She had it all planned out that she was going to ask for a big pink ball and a new baby doll. She had wanted a kitty (yikes!) but changed her mind. We get to the front of the line after about 1 hour and 15 mintues and what does Shelby do you ask? She grabs onto Nate's neck in a death grip, refuses to let go, and starts crying. Sarah was no better, refusing to leave my lap to sit on Santa's. The result, we now have a picture to commemorate this joyour occasion with Shelby hanging onto Nate and glaring at the camera and me sitting next to Santa with Sarah on my lap (complete with teary eyes). Oh the joys of Christmas. I can't figure out exactly how to scan it and get on on here or else I would. I might add that we had to buy a picture to remember this because they don't allow you to take any of your own pictures. Nate says Santa has to earn a living too, but I think not so much!

I have to add that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree because when going through pictures at my Grandpa's last week, we came across one of me at about 18 months sitting on Santa's lap (or should I say trying to crawl off) and crying hysterically. By the way, Shelby thought it was a picture or her, that's how similar we look. If I ever learn how to scan and load, I will post these pics.