The Parade of Presents

Santa came to our house this year. He doesn't wrap the presents he brings to our house. He sets them on display so the kids can see them right away.

On Christmas Eve, the kids put out their stockings. Caleb and I chose to put ours on a chair. Here is what Santa left for him.

Santa commissioned me to make those three sided Barbie playrooms. This one is a bathroom. Santa also gave me a tip to head over to Goodwill for a bag of naked Barbies (covered in tissue paper here for the sake of my blog readers) and two matching Barbie cars.

Eva put her stocking on the couch. She got the kitchen.

I think they liked them. They played with their Santa toys exclusively until after breakfast. Then we decided to open presents.

I should mention here that before breakfast we had one Barbie decapitation. Not to worry, I fixed it with a little elbow grease and super glue. Princess Jasmine Barbie will live another day.


The kids got some great gifts. Check out these outfits from their cousin Zachary (thanks Aunt Connie and Uncle Eric). Zachary also sent me some See's Candies (nuts & chews). He knew they were my favorite and the only chocolate I can't resist.

Chef Eva and Cowboy Caleb opened the last presents of the day. Eva got a Scooby Doo DVD (which she watched almost the whole morning) and Caleb got the My Sports gaming system. Basically, it is a "fake" Wii. The controllers look the same but the only games are bowling, tennis, golf, baseball, and the all important boxing! He knows it isn't the same as the one at Grandma's house, but it didn't really matter. One happy boy!

The kids played (mostly) happily all day while I finished up the Christmas cards and some gifts I need to take to Oklahoma. My address list wasn't fully recovered after my computer crash earlier in the year so if you want a card from me---you need to send me one or email me your address. I also took a much needed rest. I watched two episodes of Eli Stone with Carl, ate ham sandwiches (YUM), and went to bed before 9pm.

Carl and I got some presents, too. Carl got a pay as you go cell phone, an mp3 player, and a shaver. I got him the cell phone and he (I mean, Santa) got himself all the rest.

From Carl, I got the Neil Diamond book I asked for and a pair of pearl earrings. Before you think that Carl went all crazy and bought me jewelry, it should be noted that a coupon for a free pair of pearl earrings came in the mail from Helzburg Diamonds and I put it in Carl's pile of mail.

Funny story about Carl's present from Eric. A few days ago, Carl sent me a link to the Inigo Montoya shirt from Think Geek because he didn't think I had seen it before. This would be any big deal EXCEPT that I had shown him that shirt before AND shown him pictures of Eric wearing that exact same shirt. I told him it would be even more funny if Eric sent him that shirt for Christmas. He could act like he had never seen that shirt before...again! Merry Christmas, Carl.

If you want to see the presents I made for the kids, I just posted a tutorial over at christynelson.net.

The Parade of Presents

http://craftyconservative.blogspot.com/2008/12/parade-of-presents.html