The gift-opening festivities

The kids woke up around 8am this morning. Joshua remembered right away that Santa Claus was supposed to come last night. They all went out in the living room and immeadiately went to creating things on the felt board. We let them ravage their stockings while I put breakfast on the table. Our neighbor (Becca) shared with us a recipe for overnight French toast; so no prep in the morning, just toss it in the oven. It came out fabulous.

Daniel was quite funny this year. He was excited about everything. The kids got little car-shaped chocolates in their stockings, and he was digging through everyone else's stockings to get their chocolates out.

Here is a proud Megan holding up her ballerina ornament. We get the kids an ornament every year. She promptly put it on the tree. Notice Meow-meow hiding under the wrapping paper in the background. Yes, our cat's name really is Meow-meow. Keith talked me into getting her about a week after Daniel was born and Megan lovingly called her Meow-meow and it seemed to have stuck. Meow-meow's adoption papers from the shelter suggest her real name is Bella, but she doesn't answer to that.

I've never seen anyone so excited to see a potty! Daniel sat on his little potty in the kids' bathroom for about 30 minutes, fully clothed in his pajamas talking to me while I was in the kitchen making lunch. His favorite thing to say is, "Mom, guess what?", but he doesn't really have anything to tell you, so there is nothing to follow up the "guess what" part.

Joshua is all about legos and Star Wars. So when the two get put together, he's one happy camper. As I type, they are on the floor beside me putting this crazy beast together. There are a lot of small lego parts, so these things only get done when Daniel is napping.

Megan and Daddy took all the little ponies out of the twisty-tie madness they were secured in the container with. Then they played together with the ponies while I un-packaged some of the other toys. Toys these days come so hard to get out of the package!

Daniel loves his new blocks. He's happy to build towers and knock them down. He also got a few new cars and a new carpet to run his cars on.

Megan wanted to know if she could take her nap in the living room beside her ponies.