Bye Bye Christopher

The kids have been on school break since we went to Berlin.  We have mostly just relaxed and hung out at home with a few exceptions.  I got a haircut (nothing big just a trim) and the kids went into town with Jason, we went to my friend Beanie's so the kids could play with their friends (and I could chat with mine).  They actually were able to play with their friends a second day as well since Daria (our friend's Nanny) agreed to watch the kids while Beanie and I went together to get some shopping finished.  It made my life immensely easier as doing a giant pre-christmas grocery shop in a busy grocery store with the kids is not a lot of fun.  Other than that life was quiet here. 



It says " To: Christopher Pop-In-Kins
I will miss you Christopher when you are back in the North Pole.
From: Alessandra



Over the course of the week we started prepping Ali for the departure of Christopher Pop-In-Kins.  We did not want a repeat of the tearful goodbye of last year so we wanted to make sure she knew that he was leaving on Christmas Eve.  There was some sadness and Ali wrote a letter to give to Christopher before he left that was very sweet.  She started to cry before dinner on Christmas Eve but we told her that Santa was not going to allow Christopher to come back if Santa knew that Christopher made children so sad that they were crying on Christmas Eve.  This definitely did the trick because while she was still sad to see him go she pulled herself together and stopped crying.  After dinner we watched A Year without Santa Claus and we allowed both of the kids to take turns snuggling with Christopher.  I know that technically the children aren't suppose to touch him because he loses his magic and has to go back to the North Pole to replenish it but we justified touching him since he had to go back to the North Pole that night anyway.