Wow, what a great holiday season we have just had. I love the magic in the eyes of our children when they see Christmas lights, our Christmas Village, Santa... We had so much fun! I bought way too many books, so now we have at least 25 picture books about the birth of the Savior. Apparently I am also collecting Nativity scenes because we now have seven different sets. Only two of them are not touching ones. The kids were constantly playing with and positioning them.

A couple of funny things B said: "Mom, where would you like to go over Christmas break?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Like Hawaii or Disneyland...." I just laughed so B tried again, "How about Roy?" Now Roy is do-able. Regrettably I must inform that we didn't even go to Roy!

B also told me that they read "The Grouch Who Stole Christmas" at school. Was that me?

The girls all got brown boots for Christmas and R calls them her "co-co-lat-tay boots." It is close to how you say chocolate in Spanish. So cute.

How I wish I wrote down everything they said. They make living enjoyable... most of the time.

Now I would like to share things I can never complain about out loud.

• Spaghetti legs while trying to put tights on. I just keep trying to move the tights up their legs and they (you know who "they" are... S, R, L) they have wobbly legs, bendy legs etc. Grrrr....
• Last year I bought E a leather Jeff Gordon jacket... that was too big and he complained for a year. So, this year I bought him a smaller one in twill. I wrapped it up and put it under the tree. Christmas Eve he puts out a twill jacket that he had bought himself! I knew he wanted one....
  
• L never puts her own panties on after she goes potty. She brings them to me, waving in the air, no matter who is here. Yes, yes, I am just grateful she is going potty.
• S pretends like she can't understand Spanish when I ask her to do something she would rather not do.
• Every time I comment on the beauty of the snowy weather my husband takes it as a personal affront, as he has to maintain and fix the cities snowplows. When he is on call, meaning he has to work at all hours if there is a big snow storm, he asks, "Do you want it to snow now? Do you love snow?"
• As I comb and "do"my girls' hair they creep closer and closer to me till their heads are right against my chest. You can't do hair that way.
• We had a Thomas the Tank Engine Train that our neighbor had given us a year ago, minus the Thomas. B got a new Thomas engine for Christmas and my husband kept wanting me to take it back to the store. Then E spent hours helping the kids set up a track, he insisted we leave it up over night and E continued to play with it the next day. Go figure.
• Keeping track of 12 gloves, family hats, boots, putting on socks and shoes on so many feet...
• Children who pretend like they can't dress themselves because they need more mama time.
• Pee, pee, pee...
  
• Cookie monsters, we all know it is my fault the cats all love cookies.
• E eating an oatmeal cookie from a neighbor and saying, "Why can't you make cookies like this? Could you learn how?" I don't make oatmeal cookies because I don't like them, not because I don't have oatmeal cookie skills! Are you kidding me?
• Putting gloves on little hands! It is difficult for me to control those little fingers and get them into the right place, and then do it again, and again, and again, and again....
• Girls having opinions about hair. Tinker Bell hair means a bun pony tail, Mermaid hair is a french braid, Dora Princess is a high pony tail, two braids, two pony tails, clips, bows.... Wow!

Well, I will stop there. The kids are cute and really quite well behaved, I think. We love them and don't want to send any back. Here they are in their new Christmas jammies.