Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 has come and gone and oh what a weekend it was. We crammed a lot of cookie-making, card-writing, and kid-entertaining into the few days before the holiday. The mania was further enhanced when Glenn returned from his hunt with a buffalo in the back in the truck. Christmas Eve was spent last minute shopping, watching a football game that won't be mentioned, and wrapping buffalo meat. We all dressed up and went to church, but before we left I frantically tried to capture a picture of the four of us. I was marginally successful. After church, we had a late dinner and then had the easiest bedtime ritual we've had in a while. Will was super enthusiastic about brushing teeth and getting in bed because he knew that Santa wouldn't come to our house until everyone was asleep. Will got in bed at 8:15. At 8:37, he came downstairs to ask if Santa had showed up yet. Luckily Santa hadn't started wrapping or assembling toys yet, because Santa is smarter than that. Finally, all the children were snug in their beds and Santa worked his/her magic. Christmas morning dawned bright and early. Will crawled into bed with us at 5:45 and I told him he had to go back to sleep for a few minutes. The following conversation occurred:

Will: I'll go back to sleep mom but I'm just thinking about Santa's naughty list.

Me: Are you worried that you are on the naughty list?

Will: No, I'm just thinking about it.

I assured him that he wasn't on the naughty list (although I was tempted to point out various actions in the past week that might have landed him on said list, but you know, it's Christmas and all that.) Reina climbed into bed a few minutes later and try as we might to get everyone back to sleep, we were downstairs opening presents by 6:45. Yawn. Keep in mind that Santa had stayed up until 12:30 the night before assembling presents....

Will's big gift was the Lego castle. His Lego likes vary from castles and knights to Jedi's and spaceships with a few ninjas, pirates and policemen thrown in for good measure. Luckily the castle was a big hit, along with the fishing boat, Star Wars paraphernalia and even a new ninja that he also received from everyone else. It was a Lego Christmas. For the other part of the family, it was a very special equine Christmas. Reina's big present was this horse, who she immediately christened Lucky. Poor Lucky is designed to carry dolls, not 30-lb almost 3-yr old's. But Reina doesn't seem to mind. After the sun finally came up, and at a much more respectable hour, the rest of the Hansen/Fry family came over and opened more presents, had a great brunch and assembled Lego's. It takes a village to assemble Lego's. Reina stayed on the horse in the midst of all of the presents. ...until it was time to open up another horse present with the help of Pop-pop. This one she named Lucky Too. Or Lucky Two. Or Lucky also. Almost 3-yr old's aren't very specific about their homonyms. She gave poor Lucky a much needed break when she opened this present from her aunt and uncle in Omaha. It's Belle's dress in Reina's favorite color - yellow! Reina wants to live in a world with yellow food, yellow horses and yellow dresses. She wore this party frock until we peeled it off of her sobbing body at bedtime. Will with his lightsaber, Jedi playhut and Capt Jack Sparrow shirt that he insisted on wearing two days in a row. I know he'll want to wear it to school tomorrow so I negotiated with him to get it in the wash tonight. It was a nice holiday at the Pauley household and the Christmas glow even continued today with two kids who were too busy playing with all the new stuff to fight, whine, or bug their parents. I wish it was Christmas every day!