Wii've Got Christmas Secrets

Christmas was so exciting around my house! Santa brought my children a lot of fun toys, but Mommy got to be the real hero by giving them the things they wanted most! The morning began a little rough for Sariah. She got up and looked at all the fun new Wii games Santa left for them and said, "This is mostly for dad!"

Of course, Steve called her on that by saying, "You play it more than I do!"

Her response, "Well, technically!"

I think that Sariah was just disappointed that she did not see any Pixos or a Cabbage Patch doll. And then she had to wait until after breakfast to see what else she received. We have a family tradition (10 years running) where we invite Grandparents, Great-grandparent, and some aunts and uncles to join us for breakfast and then watch the children open their gifts. The girls are welcome to play with everything Santa left, but they have to wait for the rest.

But at least Em wasn't disappointed. We had a Santa emergency on Christmas eve. For the first time, we realized that Em really really wanted Twister! I had purchased Twister Hopscotch, but was having a hard time getting her two very similar gifts, so I decided that she would not get Twister. Santa agreed with me! Then Emy told Grandma Betty that she knew Santa would bring her Twister! She knew! Ummm..... So at 12:30 Christmas Eve, we were trying to contact Santa to let him know. We checked the only open store (Did you know Walgreens was open all Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?) But he didn't have one there. Luckily, a little elf was up late too and came to our rescue with a Hannah Montana Twister game that Santa left for her.

There was a terrible snowstorm out by us on Christmas Day. It was very difficult to see and many of our neighbors had lost power. Grandma B was worried so she and Kristi did not try to come out. We were lucky, we had power until we sat down for breakfast. And then we lost it for awhile, but it didn't bother us since the food was prepared.

After breakfast came the most exciting part! PRESENTS!!!!!!

This is were I made the biggest mistake of the morning! Most of Gracie's presents centered around a dollhouse. So, I thought she should open that first. She did! And of course she loved it! She should, she asked me to show her the picture on the computer every day of December. Well, apparently Gracie thought that you only got to keep the last present you open, so that was basically the last one she wanted to open. Luckily, Grandpa C was able to convince her to open more gifts by telling her that he thought he saw another baby in them. It worked for all the toys, but sisters ended up opening the clothes. Here she is with one of her favorite gifts:

She played with this all morning! And when Steve said that he was going to take a nap she yelled, "No! Play dollhouse!" Finally, he was able to convince her to take a nap too! But she insisted on sleeping with the mommy, daddy, both babies, sister, grandma and the car! She loved it. She was so cute. Everyone got a kick out of her putting the mommy and the babies in the van and saying, "They go bye-bye. Shopping!" Daddy would get in the van to go to work, but mommy only went shopping. She was also really excited about the potty! Every doll got a turn while she would dance for them.

No other present was a exciting as the Dollhouse! Until we went to Grandma D's! Grandma was smarter than me and had Gracie open her clothes first. And then she got the exciting present. Grandma had made her a carrier, a blanket and clothes for the new baby she gave her! Grace loved it! Really loved it. After that she would not open her present from her cousin she just wanted to play with her baby. Grandma also gave her a big diaper bag full of things to play with her baby! And guess what! There was a potty in that too! She was so excited to have her baby go potty. And now I am hoping that her toys will teach her how to go potty! Here she is with her other favorite gift:

For all of you who have been worrying about poor Sariah who got no Pixos and no Cabbage Patch! Don't worry, I'll tell you what I told her... "You haven't opened all your presents yet" She was so excited when she opened her Pixos from Steve and I:

But she was still a little sad because she did not get a Cabbage Patch. She didn't think she would get one now because Grandma D said that she only got the kids little presents this year! Considering that Sariah tends to get quite mopey when she doesn't get what she wants, I was impressed that she did not whine about her lack of Cabbage Patch (well at least not much). But I wasn't worried anyway. I knew Grandma and Grandpa would save the day:

I think this was Sariah's favorite gift of the year. She hasn't been seen without it except when we went to church today. Kudos to Grandpa who picked it out for her!

Now for Nicole. She was quite the sneaky girl this year. She would spend hours "rearranging" the presents under the tree. Sometimes, there would be little holes in the wrapping paper. And if you "rearranged" the presents just right, those holes would get bigger. Sometimes, completely unaware, Nicole would catch a glimpse of what was inside all the presents with her name on them! This was so not her fault she would tell me. But still I knew she would have very little in the way of surprises on Christmas morning. So, I decided that her only surprise would have to be her sister gift. She had jokingly told Grandma D that she wanted diapers for Christmas this year. So, I wrapped her gift from Grace in a empty diaper box. But to my surprise, when Nicole opened the diapers, she was genuinely happy! She didn't even realize it was a trick. Steve had to tell her that there really weren't any diapers in the box! What a silly girl!!

And here she is with the gift she has been peaking on all month:

Emily had a great Christmas thanks to Santa's special elf! When she woke up and saw that Hannah Montana Twister was amongst the Christmas gifts from Santa she was so happy! I am really glad that I tried to contact Santa on Christmas Eve. I don't think I could have stood to have her sad on what might end up being her last year of belief. She ended up returning the Hannah Montana one and got regular Twister, but she was okay with that and was not disappointed Christmas morning. Her favorite gifts ended up being her new Bratz dolls:

And Disney Sing It! for the Wii. (Umm, yeah that was one of the games Santa left that was mostly for Dad. He is in love with all those teeny-bopper singers and was ever so thrilled to have that game).

Well, just so you know, all those Wii games that Santa left for Dad were enjoyed very much by the girls:

And Steve ended up feeling like he needed his own Wii game, so thanks to my parents (for the money) and his brother (for calling to tell Steve what a great deal he found on Guitar Hero World Tour), Steve is now able to start his own band! --- Check this out if you don't know what I mean by that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ7iaYKUrBM Really, I think all men are just little boys in older bodies especially at Christmas.

Of course, I can't forget to thank all of our wonderful helpers. Grandpa C for sharing his fantastic carpentry skills building Gracie's Dollhouse:

And Uncle Dwaine who some how got assigned to be Gracie's personal servant in charge of removing all her toys from the boxes:

Psst... all these people think we invited them to Christmas breakfast because we love them and enjoy their company. And while we do love them and enjoy there company, we do have an ulterior motive. With them there, we are not bombarded by 4 little girls begging us to help get toys out of boxes. Shhh.... don't tell!

I hope that all of you also had a very merry Christmas too!