Merry Christmas!

Well, Christmas has come and (almost) gone once again. We're all exhausted but happy this evening. We had a great Christmas morning which started at 6:30. I'd like to be able to blame the kids, but the truth is that I woke up at 6:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, and once I realized Brandon was talking to himself in his crib I decided we should all get up and get a start on our day. I couldn't wait to see the kids' faces when they saw all the great stuff Santa brought. And since the size of the pile of presents seemed obscene for a family of five I knew we needed to get an early start if Brandon was still going to make it down for his morning nap on time! It might be Christmas, but you better believe the naps still went down as usual. When else was I going to have time to play with my new toys?

Brandon proved to be a natural at present-unwrapping. All we did was set him down in front of a present and the next thing we all knew he was ripping the wrapping paper and throwing it everywhere. He's apparently been paying attention to Kyle and Natalie.

Natalie received enough princess and Dora gear to keep her busy for weeks. She spent the afternoon dressing up and parading around the house. She couldn't have been more pleased with her Christmas haul.

Kyle also got a ton of great games, toys and books. At dinner he told us that this morning was the greatest morning ever, and he hoped that tomorrow morning would be just like it. I'm rolling my eyes again. We assured him that tomorrow morning would most definitely not be exactly like this morning. He seemed slightly annoyed by our explanation that Christmas comes once a year, and now he has to wait an entire year for Christmas to happen again. Poor kid. But we managed to distract him with video games.

My wonderful husband got me a gorgeous watch, a navigation system for my car, and a gift certificate to an awesome spa, just to name a few things. I am totally surprised and grateful.

And on one final note, I thought I'd share a couple of videos of what Shaun has decided are his favorite gifts of this Christmas. Notice that they aren't even his gifts--just a couple of little things Santa brought the kids. But Shaun thinks they're the greatest things ever, and I'd have to agree. We're both having visions of what torture we could have been inflicting on our brothers as kids if only we'd had a couple of these...

Merry Christmas!!