A visit with Santa

It may be cold up here and we may not see much of the sun for months at a time, but we do have one big advantage this time of year...we live VERY close to North Pole. It's the next town over, in fact! Of course, that means that when Santa comes for a visit we can be quite certain that it's the jolly ole' man himself. We had just such a visit Friday evening at Kieran's daycare.

While we waited for the guest of honor Kieran practiced his new moves, walking the same 5' stretch of floor over and over again, more delighted with each run. Here he goes...

Almost there! His eyes are glued to his target...the arm of the chair I'm sitting in.



Touchdown! Oh, happy baby!





Then there was a pitter patter on the rooftop, then a knock on the door...Santa arrived right on time with a bag filled with early Christmas presents. I love the look on this boy's face. He obviously knows that this is the real deal.




Santa doesn't travel alone, of course. And when it isn't Christmas Eve and he doesn't have to travel the globe in one night, he's happy to bring one of his raindeer in for a visit. This sweet little female is backup for the main team - just in case Prancer comes down with the sniffles next week. Her name is Toko.

Mrs. Claus helps with the indoor visits.

Kieran had his chance to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what he wants for Christmas.

At the time I think what Kieran wanted most was to get off Santa's lap. Next year he'll come prepared with a list.

Toko was a bit too warm inside so we went out to visit with her in the yard. She's a sweet and gentle girl with super soft fur and very impressive antlers! Just like the ones on Max, the little dog in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Kieran is just beginning to fit into the beautiful jacket he received from wonderful Anne Winslow last Christmas. Thank you Anne! Merry Christmas to you!

Then Santa had to go. We all walked him out and told him how to get to our new house. He told us not to worry, he already had us on his route.

Thanks for visiting Santa! Nice to meet you Toko! Merry Christmas :)

Early December

It was a quiet week here until last night (but that's for another post) with a couple of good snows and some colder temperatures. Kieran has continued to work on his walking. He's a cautious little guy, happy to take time to work on his technique. He's gained a lot of confidence in the last few days and can now span a room if he sees something enticing on the other side. It's been fun watching the thrill in his face when he realizes the he did it all by himself! More on that in the next post.

We finally coughed up the cash for a bag of black oil sunflower seeds (the chickadees' favorite) which has doubled in price since last year. Maybe someone should tell the seed manufacturers that the price of oil has come down? Suki thought it was money well spent though as she monitored the comings and goings at the bird feeder outside the living room window. Max caught her on video in a particularly frisky mood. Best viewed with audio!




We had a fun event take place in our neighborhood last weekend. There is a snowshoe race series in town for the few runners who would rather keep running through the winter than switch to skis. The race course included our driveway on the out and back so Max felt he had no choice but to participate.



He walked the 150 yards to the race start wearing his old heavy wood and rawhide snowshoes and came back through at top speed wearing a fancy pair of borrowed high-tech racing snowshoes - a nice trade that he credits with his third place finish. Here he goes running down the driveway toward the finish.



Kieran thought it was great fun watching daddy run by with big floppy shoes on his feet.