A Pony for Christmas

I still need to sit down and write everything up from Christmas, as well as download and go through my pictures, but in a few words, we had a perfect Christmas. The kids loved everything Christmas, and despite some severe sleep-deprived-grumpiness that hit off and on in the afternoon, they did amazingly well. Annie squealed with pure joy on and off all day, and would shriek stuff like, "It's what I've always wanted!" while starting at the jump rope in her stocking. "Do you know what it is, Annie?" In an equally high pitched squeal, "No." (Another humorous highlight to me was every time Ellie would open any gift Annie deemed 'cool', Annie would quickly remind her how important it is to share. She was equipped with a whole little mini-lecture about the virtues of sharing.)

But the hit of the day had to the the pony that Santa brought. Have you seen these (they were big last Christmas, I didn't see 'em as much this year, although Amazon is still selling them for $300)? They're the 'life-like', taller-than-Annie, interactive pony. (Which was found on clearance months and months ago at Sears for $30 . . . I just didn't want anyone thinking I, or Santa in this case, would spend $300 on a kid's Christmas gift).
I knew the girls would love it, but I had no idea it would become 'the' toy (here I was thinking the dollhouse Annie's been asking Santa for for months would be the biggest hit, silly Mom.) Annie's never asked for a pony, never really discussed horses with me, and isn't even that into My Little Ponies yet, but she spent as much time as possible nuzzling this horse, stroking it's cheek, sitting on it's back, brushing it's mane and feeding it carrots, all the while whispering to it how much she loves it. That girl is smitten. (Ellie's a pretty big fan too). It was funny, and a bit sad, that Annie became increasingly worried throughout the day about her horse waiting at home (it hadn't eaten since breakfast, afterall). Once we were at our third or fourth house for the day, Annie just couldn't get it off her mind, "Mom, my pony hasn't eaten in awhile . . . we need to get home to feed her!" Their reunion at 6:30 that night was sweet, and we were never able to talk Annie into eating dinner, since she couldn't pull herself away from the pony. (Which she made up for by requesting waffles at 6:40 this morning.)

Who knew? Turns out every little girl does want a pony for Christmas!