Santa in the Digital Age

A week or so ago, I heard about the Santa calls being offered from Cincinnati Bell, so I arranged for Santa to call Kate that evening. It’s a pretty cute service – you go to the website, put in your child’s name and your phone number (only the greater Cincinnati/Dayton area works) and the time and date Santa should call, and voila, your kid gets a call from the big man himself.

When the phone rang that night, I asked Kate to answer it. I heard her say “Hello?? Hello??? Hello????” and then she hung up. She looked at me and said “Sammy must have called someone or something, because no one was there. All I could hear was ‘Ho, ho, ho.'” Being the genius I am, instead of just letting it go, I was like “Kate, who says ‘ho, ho, ho’??” A look of recognition came over her face… and then horror… and then she burst into tears. She was absolutely heartbroken that she hung up on Santa! It was so pitiful, and while Andy and I did our best to comfort her and convince her it was ok, she didn’t really buy it. I immediately got on the computer and arranged for Santa to call again 15 minutes later, and that time Kate let the man talk. Apparently Santa did a plug for Cincinnati Bell while he was at it, because Kate now says that he lives in northern Cincinnati.

While a phone call from Santa is cute, a video of him talking to your child is even better! Yesterday Emilie sent me a link to the Portable North Pole, where you can make a customized video of Santa. You answer a few quick questions about your child, what he or she wants for Christmas, and upload a picture, and within seconds you have a video of Santa talking to your child, and since he has all the “inside info,” his message is really specific and personal. It is so cute! I was hoping I could embed the video I made for Sammy in this post, but I don’t think there’s a way to do it. You can click here to see it though! Also, if you have teenagers, they’ll let you put them on the “Naughty” list – too funny.

Enjoy!

Post to Twitter

Give Away a Day: Holly and Hal Moose

Today’s giveaway is from our friends at Build a Bear.

Build a Bear has a great line of seasonal furry friends – from Frosty to Alvin and the Chipmunks to Darth Vader, there’s something for everyone. Making a bear is such a fun experience for kids, so don’t forget that gift cards make great gifts too!

We are giving away two of the Christmas favorites, Holly and Hal Moose.
Holly Moose Hal Moose

Here’s how to enter to win:
1) Leave us a comment on this post telling us which of the holiday Build a Bears is your favorite.

2) Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter and/or post it to your Facebook page and leave us a separate comment with your tweet URL.

3) Follow @BuildABear on Twitter and leave a separate comment saying you did so.

4) Subscribe to our feed & leave us a comment letting us know you did or already do.

Random.org will pick the winner on Monday, December 21. Good luck!

Post to Twitter

Cold. Again.

So remember when I bored you all with wrote about our hideous issues with getting our furnace fixed back in October? Well, things had been going along swimmingly since then – we were warm and cozy and happy.

Until last night. When it broke again. And now we are none of those things.

I thought we were cold then – ha! At last count, it was 57 degrees in our house. So again, Sammy was up half the night… freezing temperatures + new teeth coming through = very sad baby. Fun stuff.

I am also in a great mood… the exhaustion of this time of year was enough to do me in already, but added to the stress of not knowing what the crap this is going to cost us is making me not very pleasant to be around (and apparently unable to write in complete sentences). Just ask my husband, who told me I was “grumpy” at 2:30 this morning. Grumpy is an understatement.

The low tonight? 16. 16! I can hardly wait.

Being a grown up sucks.

Post to Twitter