Christmas 2013

This year Christmas seemed to have come a little fast.  I'm still just trying to catch my breath from it all.  Usually I am on top of things and have most presents wrapped before Christmas Eve, but this year found me looking for presents in November, not sending out any Christmas cards (sorry!) and staying up with Brad until 2:30 wrapping every gift.  The kids didn't know the difference though and were more than happy Christmas morning.  Unfortunately for Brad and I, they were so excited that we heard the first foot steps and stirrings at 5:30.  I think we should have drugged them with some Nyquil the night before.  That would have kept them in bed longer.  We did post a sign on the outside of the door that said "stay out until 8:00" which did at least keep them out of our room until 7:30 when Jake could bear it no more and burst in to wake us.

When you're wrapping presents for five children the stash seems to be a lot and as Brad and I wrapped we wondered if maybe we overdid it this year.  In the end when each child ended up with about 5 gifts, we decided it was just the perfect amount.

Santa found Jake a cool set of old fashioned cap guns at sportsmans warehouse.  He loved them.  He didn't stop shooting them all morning long.  Pretty soon, in addition to shooting the guns he began to talk in  a Clint Eastwood accent(we've been watching a lot of old westerns lately) asking us to "stick 'em up" and answering "I reckon so" in a gravelly 5 year old voice.

What could be more scary than a 5 year old Clint Eastwood?  

How 'bout a 5 year old Clint Eastwood/Wolverine.  That's pretty darn frightening.

And terrifying is a 9 year old wolverine with a punching bag.   

I'm just waiting for those claws of steal to come out.  I think Ben is too :)

While the gifts of survival shovels, (of course for Brad from Brad...I mean for me from Brad)

snow ski and motorcycle gear,

 water skiing gear (yes we did buy a ski boat),

 and books ranging from Calvin and Hobbes to the World record airplane book all made great presents,

I think the biggest hit of all were the Perplexus maze balls Santa got for us.  At one time or another we were all caught playing with them...

And while they kept us occupied for hours, it can be a more than a little frustrating to fall off the maze, especially for Brad.