Decorating, Santa, and Lobsters

We finished up decorating the Christmas tree this week when all of us could be home to put on our special ornaments and the star.  This year, we added our ornament from Disneyland, and Evie's ornament that she picked out from the store this year was this pig.  I don't know why she wanted it, other than she thought it was cute, which is a good enough reason, I suppose.

It took several tries to put the star on...

 Success!!!

Then, Evie sat and admired the tree for a while:

She also cracked me up with her own joke (or possibly serious question, I'm not sure which): The tree must be a girl because it has a skirt.

Saturday was the church's Breakfast with Santa event.  The first year we went, when Evie was two, she wouldn't go anywhere near the big man himself.  Last year, she talked to him, but wouldn't sit in his lap.  This year, she was afraid of him at first, but after we were there for about an hour, she warmed up to him and was willing to sit in his lap and told him she wanted dinosaurs for Christmas (which was the first I'd heard of it).

She also enjoyed playing with baby Jesus:

 Satuday afternoon, we went to a friend's house for a playdate.  This is a little girl at school who is in the younger group and is a little introverted, but she and Evie get along great and we ran into her and her family at the Hungry Caterpillar play last month and agreed to a playdate.  I really enjoyed hanging out with her parents and think the event should be repeated because we all had such a good time.

Sunday was the second Sunday of Advent so we snapped a purple picture around the Advent wreath.

Evie fell asleep in Granna's arms while waiting for our lunch table after church.  I think my mom is so beautiful in this picture.

Tonight, Evie and I celebrated her last day before she turns four and a half by eating lobster.  She's always fascinated by the creatures when we go to the grocery store and we have to stop at the tank and Evie watches them run into each other.  She asked me once why they were there and I told her people eat them, which she looked disgusted by, and I explained that they're not alive when people eat them.  I asked her if she wanted to try one some time and she said yes, so tonight when I asked her what she wanted for dinner, she said lobster and I said okay.  We went to Red Lobster (which isn't where I would take a date for lobster, but it'll work for a 4 year olds's first lobster exposure) and she ate almost every bite of the lobster tail I ordered to accompany our shrimp plate (because I figured shrimp was a sure bet and lobster was a risk).

Gotta smooch my girl sometimes.

Lobster fiend!

Other little things from this week:

• My dad said on their drive home on Tuesday, Evie asked him who he thought he was going to marry before he married Granna.  I guess this came about because I'd told her that when I was her age, I had a crush on a boy that I thought I was going to marry and I advised her to think about keeping her options open (though, Desmond is a pretty swell kid).  But I'm amazed that she has the interest and thoughtfulness to ask this question of others.
• Later Tuesday night, I was getting her ready for bed and I was taking off my mascara.  I don't wear make up, except on days when I have to go to the school, and even then it's only eye circle concealer and mascara.  Evie asked me why I had been wearing make up and whether it was because I thought people wouldn't think I was pretty.  She's incredibly perceptive, and I had to be careful about how I answered.  I told her I wore it because I didn't want to look tired (which is the truth).
• While we were at Red Lobster, Katy Perry's song "Eye of the Tiger" came on, which has a lyric that says, "I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire..." and Evie said, "Dancing through fire?  .... I guess she is melting and dying."  (I hate Katy Perry's music so I didn't mind this observation one bit.)