Highlights From A Christmas

The presents that were the unexpected biggest hits and caused the recipients to scream, "Thanks Mom. This is all I have EVER wanted." Which I wish I had known before I shopped:

pedometer, given to my 9 year old who spent the entire day yesterday running and jumping around the house and giving us hourly, sometimes even more frequent, updates on how many steps he had walked thus far. It also gave me the ability to say things like, "Hey, go outside and run around the house ten times and see how far that is!" or "I wonder how many steps it is to bring the garbage from the kitchen out to the garbage cans?"

grabber claw, now there is nothing out of reach and pinching people's butts has never been so much fun!

empty 2L bottle of Sprite, though technically it wasn't a Christmas present, but it was bought for Christmas and given the amount of enjoyment my 1 yr old has gotten out of the empty bottle, it should have been

A gun that shoots suction cups and was bought at the Dollar Store has been much loved by everyone. Now I have little spit circles on all of my windows

The present that made us laugh the most:

A wool peacoat I gave to Rob which claimed to be reversible. But the reverse side was the quilted lining which looked like a lining and not at all like it was the right side, except for the pockets. I can't adequately describe how funny it was. You'll just have to trust me on this one. It was tears streaming down my cheeks, peeing in my pants funny. The children didn't think it was nearly as funny, but I think that is probably because they were sober.*


The present that broke as soon as it was opened and renewed my hatred for all things Barbie:

Barbie Magna Doodle piece of pink crap.


The present that I have enjoyed the most:

Skipper. I had one of these when I was a kid and used to play with it all the time. I discovered I am still good at it. The kids and I had numerous competitions yesterday, with me screaming things like, "I'm taking you down suckah. You can't beat me." and "Be serious, this isn't a game!"


The most unexpected present:

A beautiful red wool coat that was given to me "from Rob". He was very surprised and I complimented him on his exquisite taste.


There is so much more I could write about but my fingers are just bloody stumps from all the twist-tie undoing and my tiny screwdriver services are required yet again to install some batteries that will eventually end up costing more than the toy itself. I have Christmas photos up at Flickr, just click the Santa one at the top of the post if you want to relive my Christmas in excrutiating detail


*not that we were drunk, just enjoying a bottle of wine or three on Christmas Eve