Happy Santa Day! Have you been good? The girls (aka Katrine worrying for both of them) are keeping their fingers crossed that they made it onto the nice list. We also spent the last two days baking cookies to make sure that we had enough sweet stuff to tempt the big guy. On the plus side, Katrine went to sleep super quickly tonight, or at least pretended to.
Round 1:
Last night was Elspeth’s first real taste of the Christmas tradition of celebrating family. Glenn’s side of the family got together at his sister’s house for a nice dinner, awesome cookies provided by the other Heather, gifts and family. The dinner and drinks were a hit with the grown ups, while Katrine loved her aunt’s white chocolate peppermint bark. Elspeth spent a good portion of the beginning of the evening fretting about their small shitzu. Now Casey is a sweetie who loves to play. The worst thing she could possibly do is lick you to death. Just the same Elspeth could not be far enough away from her. All through dinner she was checking under the table to make sure that she wasn’t lurking there or climbing into my lap for comfort at the hint of a bark (great for bonding though). Katrine is not a big fan of dogs as you all know. When she was younger she was quite scared of them, especially big ones but upon meeting Casey her fear has become managable. She can now tolerate most dogs and refuses to let them get in the way of her fun. Elspeth’s reaction to dogs makes young Katrine look like a dog lover. She loves the concept of dogs when they are wayyyyy down the block or squishy stuffed animals just not when they are alive and within a two house width radius of her. Then terror hits. Her eyes get huge, she tenses, scans the area, clings (yeah), uses us as physical barriers (yeah). We have a lot of family and friends with dogs so this presents a real problem. It is also quite remarkable given that there were free roaming small dogs at the orphanage. We have wondered if her little scar on her leg was the result of a burn but perhaps it was a dog bite. The later would explain her intense fear. Now the question becomes how to help her reach the place where Katrine is with regards to dogs. Suggestions?
Elspeth relaxed once the presents began to be handed out. Maybe because of the presents and maybe because she didn’t know that Casey was downstairs as she was so quiet. Both girls had a lot of fun tearing into the paper. Katrine was also thrilled to be able to hand out some gifts that she had purchased with her own allowance. This is the first year that she had money to spend on presents and was quite proud of herself.
Round 2: After a day of last minute jobs, we headed to church for family service. Katrine was an adorable star in the children’s play. She walked in, skipped around and then sat prettily until the end of the play. She told me that she was glad to be a star because she got to wear a yellow headband and do a little dance. The joys of being 7.
