Thursday Thirteen #21 - Our Christmas in a list

It's been a long week! That's the only problem with taking vacation at holiday time - it goes by so fast... This year has been a very good one holiday-wise for us and I hope it has been for you as well. I thought I'd share a few highlights (and photos) and since it's Thursday, I decided to do it in list format.

So here are 13 highlights of our Christmas!

1. Taking a toddler to a house with a staircase right in the middle, especially if said staircase is unblocked by a safety gate is - challenging, to say the least.
   
   You can probably see where this is going.
   
   
   
   Let's just say that I have gone up and down the staircase at Ron's brother's house many, many more times than I ever wanted to, since I don't trust Becca not to take a tumble if she's climbing up or down on her own.
   
   
2. Apparently the game "Perfection" is equally enthralling to both 6-year-olds and 1-year-olds.
   
   
   
   
3. Hannah's air hockey skills increase exponentially in the 'two-fisted' version.
   
   
   
   
4. Getting 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds to pose nicely by the Christmas tree isn't very difficult.
   
   
   
   
5. However, getting 1-year-olds to pose by the tree and smile for the camera is pretty much impossible. This is the best we could do, taken as she was walking away from the tree:
   
   
   
   
6. Being Santa is exhausting. And oh yes - 'Santa' snores... LOL
   
   
   
   
7. Telling kids not to wake you up before 7:30am would work much better if they could tell time. Because someone really needs to tell my kids the difference between 7:30am and 6:30am! :)
   
   
8. It doesn't take 1-year-olds very long to get the whole idea of the present-unwrapping thing. Getting them to understand that they can't unwrap every present under the tree, one after the other, is much more difficult.
   
   
   
   
9. Seeing your child's face as she opens the one gift that she was convinced that Santa would bring, that she's been talking about for days = priceless.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. Toddlers insist on having everything taken out of the box right after the gift is unwrapped so that they can play with it. The box, that is. :)
    
    
    
    
11. Then there's the art of playing with the toys and the boxes, at the same time...
    
    
    
    
12. My brother buys very strange things as gifts for my kids.
    
    
    
    
13. But that doesn't matter since they get plenty of other things from us, Santa, and their grandparents. Too many things usually.
    
    

There have to be more presents around here someplace, right? Maybe you didn't look hard enough behind the tree...

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Thank you to Write From Karen for the header graphic this week!