Christmas

Christmas was as expected. Early morning wake ups. Excitement by some (Miranda for the giant horse) and Elizabeth (for all "the cool clothes!") and some disappointment from Parker ("I didn't get as much as I thought....") which was actually kinda true.  We just bought all sorts of stuff for his bday so were a little light for christmas for him.  They all got stocking filled with all matter of crap and I made the standard coupon books "one eating dessert without finishing dinner, etc"

He did get a laser spy thing that shoots laser light across small mirrors to protect a room from intruders. If someone breaks the laser beam, an alarm goes off. It's been a big hit all day.

Miranda got an assortment of animal and art related gifts and exclaimed with glee each time she opened one.  The "paint a horse" thing was a real winner.

Elizabeth did get lots of clothes, which was the only thing she wanted. But Santa also brought her some "fashion-related" crafts.  She kept saying, "Boy, Santa really know what kinds of clothes I like." Yup, Santa does.  Clothes for a 6 year old going on 14.

Parker also got some more legos, RISK, a couple science projects and a small telescope.

I got a new comforter and pillows from the kids and an ipad from Michael.

Michael got an umbrella from parker, some hand written books from the kids (one called Powems) by Elizabeth, and yet another plain navy sweater to add to his collection.

When I was at the pet store yesterday getting some dry cat food, I picked up a catnip toy for him. Miranda wrapped it and put it under the tree. Last night after the kids were in bed, Zeke found it and ripped into it. He was high on catnip quickly rolling around playing with it for a good portion of an hour. You wouldn't have guessed he is almost 14 years old.

I went back to bed after all the opening since I got pretty much no sleep last night. Michael entertained the troops with projects and other such nonsense.  When I woke up, we cleaned the house and packed for the snow trip.  Michael made a chicken dinner which the kids all hated, but that was delicious.

It's rained all day here so we never left the house.