Kate vs Santa

Encounter #1: the ward Christmas party. When they announced that Santa would be coming, I snatched Kate up and ran to stand in line. As soon as the big fella walked in, she became very frightened. She started yelling for Daddy. We had to leave Ada in line and go find Daddy. Any time we tried to get her close to him, she would scream. No lap sitting, but she did somehow walk away with a candy cane.

Encounter #2: the Lisonbee Christmas party. My MIL's family party actually took place at our church. This time Santa had presents for all the kids. When Kate's name was called, she slowly inched her way over to Santa and reached for her present while standing as far away as she could:


We made her sit on his lap, and this was the result:


On Christmas Eve, we kept asking the girls who was coming that night.

Kate: "Angie and Hyrum!"
Ada: "Santa!"
Kate: "No! I don't wanna see him!"

Christmas morning, Kate woke up before 7:00. She acted like it was any normal morning, but she was super grumpy. Ada slept past 8:30, so we put on a show for Kate and tried (unsuccessfully) to keep her happy until Ada got up. When it was finally time to go downstairs, Ada ran with excitement while Kate kicked and cried. As she saw the spread, however, her eyes got big and she got very excited. She didn't know quite what to think, but she was happy and remained so the rest of the day.

Perhaps there's hope for next year after all.