christmas continued

our good friend, blythe, moved back from texas this week. so, monday was dedicated to helping them get their stuff moved in, and semi-settled (we got beds put up).

tuesday, we found someone to watch the kids so we could do some last minute errands. we got some help with christmas this year, and needed to pick it up. however, it made no sense to do it WITH the kids, as it was for them. besides, upon picking it up, it filled the van. there wouldn't have been room for them. there was 3 times more than i was expecting!
upon going through the stuff, i discovered that there was way more stuff than we needed. i pulled 3-4 items out of each of the kids' boxes, and put them up for a later occasion. some of the stuff didn't fit, or was too "young" for them. but, i have birthday stuff for taylor, elizabeth, and shannon this next year (i think).
that night, i proceeded to wrap everything. it took me a little over 2 hours to get everything wrapped. all the kids had 6 gifts, plus their santa one. 7 is more than enough. next week, we will go through their old toys, and choose 3-4 to give away.

taylor received a couple of i spy wii games from santa. he had a wallet, an emergency bracelet, skipbo jr, a scarf, and various odds and ends in his stocking. he got a bunch of cars, 2 consructo-bot transformers, a voice changer, a slinky (which the little kids have destroyed), a pair of jammies, and a top racing game. there are other things that i can't recall.
elizabeth got an alarm clock from santa. her stocking contents are a mystery to me right now. she got a large doll, a doll head to practice hair-dos on, a couple of princess barbies, a pair of jammies, boots, gloves/hat set and a complete outfit.
shannon got a princess tea set from santa. a pair of jammies, a complete outfit, a couple of princess barbies, some hair things; barettes, clips, headbands, a scarf/gloves/hat set, and various odds and ends in her stocking as well.
ashley got a plastic tea set from santa. she also got a pair of jammies, hair things, a couple of princess barbies, a new pair of sunday shoes, a new dolly, a musical guitar, and various odds and ends in her stocking as well.
michael received a steering wheel that makes different vehicle sounds, fire truck, car, big truck, etc. he also got a new outfit, a play phone, some trucks, a set of little people super heroes, a pair of jammies, and some books.
 shaun got the hobbit on extended dvd, a new ball cap, the original story of superman book, published in 1978, a nice hoodie jacket, a shirt, a 12 piece screwdriver, a model car to assemble and various odds and ends as well.
i got a pamper pack from santa. it had 8 or so pairs of socks. it also had a sleep mask, but it gives me a headache to wear. i got a pair of jammies, some jewelry, a water tower for my christmas village that is still being painted.

santa also left us a gingerbread kit, which the kids started to put together today, and a snow disk. from their aunt, they received 2 snowman kits. eyes, coal, buttons, noses, and scarves.

considering that until the week before, we weren't going to have more than 3 gifts each, we made a haul!