Last minute letter to Santa from Maeve

MAEVE: Dear Santa, How are you? This is Maeve's Christmas list. I made this blog because I didn't know if Freddy the Elf would get this list to you in time.  I thought a blog post would be better because you read them, that's why!  I know you read this blog because Mrs. Claus told me. 

Here are the things I want for Christmas. 

Gymnast Dora 
A sled
Some clothes
Kid car, like the kind you can drive around
Remote control car, like the kind you can drive around but with a controller.

And that's it!  Thank you Santa.  I hope you have a safe trip.  I hope you're feeling better.

From,
Maeve

Holiday greetings from the bloggers...

A quick editorial from Daddy. Last night was a party we held for Addie’s fifth birthday. In 2010 and 2011, she was lucky enough to get a visit from Santa at her birthday parties and she’s been talking about how she can’t wait to see her “special friend” all year. Santa was played beautifully by her great uncle, Neil, who passed away in February. This year, Mary Kate O’Connell was sweet enough to fill in as Mrs. Claus, claiming Santa was nursing a bad cold, but that he sends his love.

About ten minutes into their conversation, Addie leapt from Mrs. Claus’s lap, ran to me and shouted,

ADDIE: DADDY! SANTA READS MY BLOG!

I assume most of the people who read this blog know me and my girls and were even lucky enough to have known Uncle Neil. So I don’t have to explain how Christmas was HIS TIME. He played Santa for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra every year with Marvin Hamlisch. He bought presents for every one of my siblings, cousins, children, nieces and nephews. Addie was telling me that Santa Claus reads her blog, but to me, it was a sign that Neil is still keeping an eye on things.

The first time Santa visited, he left a book for Addie that included a recording of The Night Before Christmas. He’s using his Santa Voice, but it’s unmistakably Uncle Neil. I’m crying thinking about it now.

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I wish for you the kind of joy Uncle Neil felt whenever he donned the Santa suit. I wish for you the kind of pure wonder Addie felt when talking to Mrs. Claus about Rudolph. And I wish for you the kind of love I feel when I listen to the following. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Field and fountain, Maeve and mountain...

MAEVE: I lost one of my ponies. What time was it when I found it, dad? When it was 4:58, I found my pony. Just so you know, it’s not a real pony, it’s a toy. Can I spell “TOY”? Like on the computer?

DADDY: Sure.

M: [She types this] toy

D: Good job.

M: Well I’m cleaning up the play room right now and it’s a retiring job.

D: A what?

M: A retiring job.

D: Oh. Okay, keep going.

M: Daddy, write the words to this song. [She sings. Beautifully.]

star of wonder,

star of night.

star of wonder,

beauty bright.

star of wonder,

star of night.

star of wonder,

beeeeeauuuuuuty briiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Also, this is the song I sang at my Christmas Concert:

angels we have heeeeeeeard on high!

sweetly swinging over the plains.

and the mountains in reply,

echoing their joyous stains.

D: That was so pret-

M: 

GLO-O-O-O-O-OOOOO-O-O-O-O-OOOOO-O-O-O-O-OOOOO-REEEE-AAAAA...  

IN ECKS ELSE EES DAAAAAA-AAAAAA-OOOOOOOOO!

Daddy, Tom and Jerry is on so I’m done with the blog now.

What Addie's getting everyone

ADDIE: Guys!  Do you want to hear something?  For Christmas, I am going to get Jess a sweater!  And I am going to get Nana a vase.  I am going to get Clark a guy dinosaur.  Well, not a guy, it's a toy.  And I am going to get mom the best thing of all. A picture frame.

And I am going to get my dad my heart.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

MAEVE: Happy birthday, Daddy! This is a frame that I made for you.  Daddy, can you take a picture of the frame and put it next to these words?

The pipe cleaners spell "Dad".
Okay, actually, they spell "dAb".

I'm going to bug my mom to make a cake for Daddy. Bake a cake! Bake a cake! If I made a cake for you it would look like Superman has been made on the top. It would be chocolate chip!

ADDIE: Guys, in a few days you're going to see Dad's card. The one with my picture is me and Daddy on our block. Walking. And here it is!

A drawing of me and Addie?  Weep.
Also, Donald totally does love Pluto.

Hey, do you want to know something? My birthday is December eight-two. 

M: No, it's December eighteenth.

A: I SAID December eighteen. We're going to make cupcakes today for my class! I know we're not going to school. Don't worry.  We're just going to make cupcakes for tomorrow. We're going to make SNOWMAN cupcakes. But only the snowman's head. And for the noses of the snowmans, we're going to use orange tic-tacs!

Daddy, why don't you have a Birthday Crown?

DADDY: I'm regal enough.

Carrots are not a favorite thing.

DADDY: What's your favorite thing that happened today?

ADDIE: My favorite thing? [She taps her temple, silently thinking for a good twenty seconds.]

D: Okay, how about--

A: My favorite thing was very fun today, do you all want to hear it?  Okay then.  Let's hear it.  It is playing on the playground after school.  Well, I did play catch with one of the teachers.  When he catches us, when he gets us, we have to try to get him.  Not anyone else.  When he gets one of the people on my team, that means that were all taggers.  Once, know what?  He tagged everyone and everyone came up to him and he tagged like this [makes a frantic tagging motion], even me!

Daddy, I love you from the moon to my heart a hundred times.  I'm going to go watch TV in the living room now, can I? [Exit, stage living room.]

MAEVE: Can we talk about me now?

D: We can talk about you so long as you eat your carrots while we do.

M [Eating, with a very sour face.  She pulls a little, porcelain unicorn and a dolphin up onto the table.]: Nana got me a unicorn and a dolphin from Alabama.  This dolphin is like almost as big as my thumb.  And then the unicorn is almost as big as my thumb too.  Actually, I think it is as big as my thumb.  The dolphin has paper on its tail and it has a blue beak and it has a tiny tiny hole on her neck and she's white from the ankle of her tail on the bottom up to her beak and she has black eyes.  She has a little white on her beak. [Maeve's eating carrots with about a gallon of ranch on each one.  Here she actually wretches for a second and, of course, she blames the carrot, not the dressing.]

And they're really special glass.  And this unicorn is white and it has a white mane. It has four gold hooves.  One is tilted.  She has a blue necklace with a golden jewel in the middle. And her horn is gold.  Her eyes are black. And that's probably it.  Bye!

When mi kids grow up.

[Maeve has asked to type something again, but won't let me watch while she does it.  Here it is.]

Hi dudes! What's up? I love mi dad. 

[Daddy has wiped his eyes and is now typing again.]

MAEVE: And I love my mom!

What I am going to be when I grow up I actually don't know but I feel like I want to be a ballerina but only I don't want my toes to bleed. 

ADDIE: I want to be a gymnastic. A cheerleader. Well, I'm going to be three of them. And the last one is a actor. Daddy, what would happen if I had a parade on the same day as a play? 

DADDY: Well, you'd have to pick one. I bet that'll probably happen someday. You'll have to choose what thing you most want to do. 

A: Maybe I can do one thing and then later I will have time to do something else. 

D: Yes, actors do that a lot...

A: Oh good.

M: Can I say one joke? Here is a joke. What do birds like to eat? I mean what do birds like to drink? Bird water! Ha ha ha. Not just water, biiiiiird water.

Bye dudes!

So many favorite things

DADDY: Tell me your three favorite things that happened today.

ADDIE: Can I tell you my most favorite thing?

D: Tell me two regular favorite things and your one most favorite.

A: A regular favorite thing that happened is that we watched The Grinch Story.  It’s on TV though.  I liked it.  I liked that it was a story.  My favorite part is that he thought Christmas WAS great after all.

My second one is super student.  Super Student is when you're the best one in my class.  I was the super student today!  Because I be'd nice.  And I was a big help.

My best favorite thing was that St. Nicholas came to my school!  He went to all of the classes!  And he loves kids!  He loves kids!  He's the real St. Nicholas because I saw his beard and he loves kids and he has a Pegasus.

MAEVE: It wasn't Santa, it was the real St. Nicholas!  He came to my class too.  He was a saint!  I don't really know if it was the real St. Nicholas.  I don't know.

D: Was St. Nicholas also one of your favorite things?

M: Well, one of my favorites was that we practiced Christmas carols at the end of the day.  It was Rudolph.

My next favorite thing was that I had library!  Christmas Charlie Brown is what they read to us.  And I checked out a joke book again!  Here's a joke and I think this is how you say it.  What kind of spray does witches put in their hair?  Scare spray! Ha ha!

My favorite favorite thing was that St. Nicholas came!  He brought a sack and there were candy canes for everyone in it.

Daddy, if I wipe my hands off really good, can I type what YOU say?

D: Sure. Maeve is typing this. She and Addie are the best daughters in the world. I am the luckiest.

M: And now Daddy is typing this.  I love my whole family and Maeve is the luckiest.

Conversation over Breakfast-For-Dinner

MAEVE: Hi everyone!  Elf on the Shelf took Barbie's bathtub and is in the Christmas tree sitting in the bathtub!

ADDIE: Do you want to hear something funny? This is for real! We're eating hot cereal for dinner!

M: Well, YOU are.

A: For real. Seriously. Maeve is eating eggs, but Clark and I are eating hot cereal.

M: Addie, can I have some of the dessert you got for dessert?

A: Of course. Because you are my sister and I love you. 

M: Two nights ago, Mike came over, and just so you know, it is not my dad, because his name is Mike too.  We had fun playing with him and he is a good book reader.  Mike is my daddy's friend from high school.  

D: Actually, college.

M: oh.

A: Dad, can it be my turn again? [Laughing.] And when you and when Mike were in day care... when you were in day care, you took a nap on a dirty couch that had bugs on it and now you have bugs on you!  [Lisa told the girls a story about how I used to nap on the couch in our college's theater club room.  Admittedly, the couch was pretty gross.  Canisius College: Where Leaders Are Made By Growing Them From Couch Mold.]

M: Ha ha, bugs!

A: Do you want to hear something? Clark, today, he needed some tubes in his ear. And his eyes. So they put drops of tubes in his ears and eyes.

M: Actually, it was only Clark's ears, not his eyes. And Clark is waaaaaay better now. He didn't even cry at his surgery! He is a very silly boy and I love him.

Maeve loves you.

DADDY: if you had three wishes, what would you wish? 

MAEVE: I had two unicorns, one is a grown up and one is a baby. That's one wish. I would name the unicorns Jingle and Grace. The mom would be Grace and the baby would be Jingle. I would keep them in my backyard. I would feed them every day and I hope they don't charge over me. I know the baby would probably try to, but it would be so funny! 

Number two is I wish I could meet an elf, but nope. If I met an elf, I would say, "Hi elf, what's up, baby?" 

I don't think I really have a third wish. And actually, that's it for the post. The blog I mean. Bye bye folks! And whoever is reading me, I love you!

Dandelions are funny.

MAEVE: Hi my name is Maeve. Me, Maeve, is the only one making this blog today. It's because Addie gets to go places with my mom and I'm really jealous and my Daddy's laughing at me. [I totally am.]

Here's a fact, it's not really a fact though. Gramma bought an Elf on the Shelf but it's fatter, I mean, bigger than the elf... I mean the elf we have is skinnier. The elf that gramma bought is the size of my teddy bear. And the elf that gramma has? We named him Criddle. If you need help spelling it, I can show you the book. It starts with a C, not a K.

Did you know I'm eating cheez-its right now? Hee hee! Can I have more, Daddy? I'm forcing my dad to give me more cheez-its!

Now I'm playing a cheez-it like a guitar! Neer neer neer neer! And here is a cheez-it that looks like an "L". [For clarification, she's eating Cheetos. She also ate an apple and a ham sandwich, so no judging.]

Last night, when I was having my swim banquet party, I got an award and a trophy! My award was for "Deep Sea Diver"! But I don't know why. And did you actually know my trophy has my name on it? I loved being on the swim team because it's fun. And I love my coach even though she's a little silly. Everyone at the swim party gave her a snow globe with Finding Nemo in it because she loves it and she opened it and said "ah! I love it!"

Hey, want to hear a joke? [She thinks, then gives up.] I'm kidding. I don't want to tell a joke anyway. There is a dandelion. The end. [She pretends to fall asleep.]