Happy, Happy Holidays

I have decided that nice, quiet Christmases are my favorite kinds.  Don't get me wrong, I love having family visits and traveling to exciting places, but after all the business of  the holiday season, the concerts, the parties, the projects, the shopping, the baking, the cleaning, and the carpooling, it is so nice to just relax and enjoy the comforts of home and family, and if some of us don't get out of our pajamas for days on end, well that just means less laundry to do at the end of the week.

This year, the award for best reaction to a gift goes to Brandon, with an honorable mention to Bryce for his supporting role.



The award for best spoiler also goes to Brandon who foiled all of Mark's hard work on the trampoline surprise by deciding to look out his window early Christmas morning to check for snow!  (I have no idea why, since there was not any snow in the forecast and it has only snowed on Christmas one time in all of Alabama history!)

Mark had enlisted the help of a good friend and his family to set up a new trampoline in our back yard Christmas Eve while we were out seeing the Hobbit.  He made sure that we would return after it was dark and that all the blinds would be closed so that the kids wouldn't see what was in the yard until the morning.  We then wrapped up letters that spelled out "go out back" inside certain gifts for the kids to open. The plan was that they would slowly find all the letters as the gifts were being opened, figure out the clue, and then get a big surprise when they looked outside and saw the new trampoline with a big red bow on it.  The reality was that, at 6 in the morning, Brandon got up and decided he'd better check to see if it had snowed during the night. So he opened his blinds, saw the big gift in the back yard, and then immediately told his brother and sisters; but did any of them say anything to us?  No.  They just all pretended like they hadn't seen anything until they figured out the word clues and then, instead of excitedly going out to check what it could be they just calmly said, oh, this must be for the new trampoline we saw outside this morning.  Not quite the reaction we had been hoping for. 

A gift that went over a little more as anticipated, was Natalie's new markers.  Natalie's nice Copic marker set was stolen at school a while ago and she was very excited to find new ones under the tree this year.  I think being in bed, in pjs, with an ipod, stuffed animals, and markers is probably Natalie's idea of heaven. 

The boys took a break from the WiiU one morning and spent several hours working together to build Bryce's giant Lego Ninjago playset.  Seeing them spend several hours doing something that doesn't involve technology is my idea of heaven!

Emily was hoping to get her braces off for Christmas, but it looks like she will have to wait until Valentine's Day for that gift.  Instead, she got new clothes, a new flat iron, perfume, and nail polish as some of her gifts this year.  I'm almost afraid to send that girl back to school tomorrow.  Her newly enhanced cuteness may be too much to handle, even if she still has the braces.

Mark had the whole week off this year which he really enjoyed! The kids made sure that he found plenty of socks and underwear under the tree, so he is should be nice and comfortable in the coming year.  Bring on 2013!