Christmas Review

Quick Christmas Review....
It was a pretty perfect Christmas. It started with a very relaxed Christmas Eve, because I decided to wrap all the gifts first thing in the morning instead of waiting till the evening, so I had all day to relax and bake and just have fun. That evening we finished our 12 Days of Christmas / Secret Santa runs. We picked 3 friends and for the 12 days leading up till Christmas we were Secret Elves and delivered treats and toys to them every night. We made it the whole time without getting caught and we had tons of fun. Thank you Petty Family for making it even more fun by spying every night and trying to catch us - it made it a great adventure.

Christmas morning went a little too quickly for me. I'll explain why. I have major gift issues, meaning I express and feel love by giving and receiving gifts. So every birthday or Christmas I want to go crazy with gifts and I am always afraid that my kids will be disappointed and not love me if there aren't TONS of gifts under the tree. Well I have discovered and I don't think I'm the only one, that as my kids get older the more EXPENSIVE their gifts become. Am I right? So my budget is the same as when I could buy them 10 presents, but now that budget only can buy them 3 or 4. So my kids each got 4 gifts from mom and dad. Now they were great gifts. Tyson wanted the Lego Star Wars Gun Ship and Brissinger, Zach wanted Nintendo DS games and a Mega Bloks Medieval Castle, and Emma wanted an Ipod and a camera. So I had to fight every urge in my body to not ignore the budget and still buy them tons of gifts. However, my husband was the voice of reason and assured me that the kids would be thrilled with their gifts and that quality was more important than quantity. And he was right!! Of course, Grandma and Grandpa Vaughan were the biggest hit of Christmas. They got all of us a Wii, and Uncle Macc and Aunt Lisa got us Wii Music and Great Grandma and Grandpa Vaughan got us more controllers and another Wii Sports game. So all the great stuff, I didn't have to buy! So the gifts were few in number but high in appreciation.

And as for me, I felt COMPLETELY loved because my husband spoiled me rotten and bought me all sorts of crafty items and software. He even spent two days of his life reorganizing our small office to make room for two craft tables so that I can actually work on projects and leave them out (all away from a little 2 year old's hands)! So now I can put all my pent up energy to good use instead of yelling at my kids! YIPPEE!! To end the wonderful day we had friends over for dinner and ate tons of yummy food!! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!