Merry Christmas!

"Julia is a genius!"

This phrase was uttered MORE than a few times this morning without even a HINT of sarcasm! Santa was here! His offerings? Way too much candy, Webkinz, two more sets of Wii controllers and nunchucks, and Mario and Sonic's Winter Olympic Games. Guess what? The winter games even has CURLING! Even more surprising is that our kids actually know what curling is AND enjoy it!

Julia is the child responsible for asking Santa to bring us two more sets of controllers (this is why her siblings have, albeit temporarily, granted her the status of "genius"). Santa, also being a genius, must have agreed that this would be a great gift. Our next several posts will probably involve examples about why you should never let 4 children all play Wii at the same time.

So, the morning started out QUITE well. Matthew has said at least 15 times, "This is the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER! I LOVE Christmas!" He has been a very happy boy today. He was thrilled to get some gift cards. Yes, even at 5 he totally knows what to do with those! His sisters were also quite happy and have already asked if they can go shopping. Today. They think they are going tomorrow (ha!)

We got games, we got movies, we got books, and we got toys. The kids all got pajamas. Aunt Stephanie, they wore your present to bed last night and I have to also share that when they saw the pictures of their cousins they all had the same reaction: "Ohh my gosh! Whoa! Zach looks so different! He's like older!" They also thought it was a great picture (and looked at me as if to say, "Mom, you totally need to learn how to use a camera properly! They look amazing, while we always look quizzical and pathetic!") Matthew was especially blown away by his Craftsman "instruction set" (see his picture). As Amanda opened one box, all the kids exclaimed excitedly, "70 servings of popcorn!!!" If only we'd known, right? Matthew at one point opened a present and exclaimed with confused glee, "A WHITE BOX!!???!! Ohhhhh,aaaaaaa, BOY!?!" A little later, we caught Amanda playing with the instruction set...

Our two elves are still with us to create mischief and wreak havoc upon our house. Yes, there are two elves now. Last year, Eugene came to live with us. This year, we were joined by his doppelganger Raymond (aka "Ug"). Allison seemed to think that Eugene may be lonely, and after a tearful plea for a friend to visit Santa somehow complied. The two elves are known for getting into all sorts of strange places and pulling pranks. We thought (hoped?) they had left, but they were found dangling by their feet in various parts of the house this morning (see picture).

We got lots of boxes and great gifts and again were reminded that we are truly blessed with a loving family. The kids even said, "I think we get too much from our family. We don't deserve it." I'm not making that up, by the way. Thank you to everyone for the gifts and we wish we could spend this day with all of our family.

Although we haven't planned it out yet, we will be taking another epic summer trip. Clark W. Griswold's got NOTHING on us!!!