Christmas Aftermath

Joel had a few days off work for the Christmas Holiday and we all enjoyed lounging around and playing with our new presents.

Santa brings candy in the stockings at our house, and William was amazed.  Any time someone went into the kitchen, he'd run in and beg for more candy.  Suckers were his favorite.  He'd go through two or three at a time!  

Needless to say, the candy is all gone now and I am glad.  But it was pretty fun to see this little guy get so excited about it all.

Joel surprised me with an ipad.  Guess who loves it the most?

Yep, Everett.  No wait, Joel.  No, both of them.  I use it all the time too, of course, but not without those two vying for a turn.

I constantly hear from Everett about a frog-breeding game, "Hey Mom, I just want to check on my frogs.  I'll be super fast, I promise."  

All the kids received pillow pets from Santa.  I figure this is the last year that Everett will truly be a small child with his Christmas wish-list, because next year he will be in kindergarten and will hear about all the cool things his friends are getting for birthdays, etc.  

Each of the kids only had one thing on their wish-list, and they got it.  It wasn't the pillow pets, but they were  thrilled about them anyway and have used them constantly.  Everett got a husky dog, Ashley got a purple unicorn, William got a lion, and James got a Moose (which is being taken care of by Everett until James is old enough to use it).

Lots of fun.  Everett had a little extra fun a few days before Christmas when he found his most expensive and non-returnable present (a bunch of Legos from ebay) under my bed, opened it, and started playing with it before I could catch him.  

I banished him to the basement playroom until dinner while I cleaned it all up.  I was mad, but mostly mad at myself because I meant to move the box that morning.  I would have done the same thing at his age, given the opportunity.  But Everett and I did have a talk about why it's best to wait for the surprise and how it makes me feel that he opened it early, and I think he understands.  Not too big of a deal.  Besides, isn't this something every child does at least once or twice?  

We had a great Christmas and a nice relaxing vacation, which made getting back to real life pretty easy.