Christmas 2012

This Christmas we did the normal decorating and even Delilah was big enough to help out.

Isaac's sister Stephanie gave us their train to put around the tree. The kids loved it!

After everything was out Hazel was looking at our collection of pictures we have taken with Santa over the years. Then she says to me "none of these are the real Santa." I asked her why she thought that. "Because I have never seen any reindeer there" so I told her they were probably on the roof of the mall so she didn't see them. So she says to me in her snottiest, I am a 7 year old who knows everything voice "I don't think so" she flipped her hair and walked out of the room.
 A few days later I was at Walmart with Evan and Santa was there and surprisingly there were no kids around him so I took Evan over and Evan refused to get out of the cart, he wouldn't talk to Santa and wouldn't even LOOK at him. I laughed and said something about him probably being worried about which list he was on this year. After we walked off I asked Evan what was the matter and he shrugged his shoulders and said "that's not the real Santa". So I ask him why he thought that. "I didn't see any reindeer outside".
 So what did this mother do? I searched for the real Santa complete with . . .

Reindeer!

Yep. Santa was there with 4 of his reindeer and a smaller sleigh that he uses just for short trips.

 Evan was still a pretty worried about that Naughty or Nice list so he was still terrified.

 After we got back in the car I asked the kids if that was the REAL Santa, it was an unanimous YES.

After visiting Santa we headed over to my parents house for gingerbread decorating.

 Chris and Lesley's 

I know Chris has some serious issues.

We also of course went to the Bradshaw Family Christmas Party. It wouldn't be Christmas without it.
So on Christmas Eve we went to my parents house for the usual Crab and Pizza dinner.

Carlye caught me and Isaac enjoying a minute alone :)

After dinner we let the kids open their Christmas Eve gifts, no surprise they were PJ's.

 My mom also got PJ's for her children still living at home.

We took some very excited children home and put out some soda and cookies for Santa (we put out soda to help Santa stay awake on his long night) and then we put the kids to bed with the threat that Santa won't come if you are awake. They all fell asleep for a little while but then Evan woke up with a horrible tooth ache. He had gotten a cavity filled and apparently it had been too close to the nerve and had gotten infected. I gave him ibuprofen but that didn't help much and I was up almost all night with him tickling his back because that seemed to be the only way he could relax. If I fell asleep and stopped tickling he would start thrashing around and whimpering. It was a sad, very long Christmas Eve night.

The next morning all the kids woke up early and went down stairs to see if Santa came, even Evan forgot about his pain for a while. Although by morning his jaw was starting to swell.

Santa brought the dogs bones and new collars and Muffin got a log to chew on.

 Santa brought the twins and Hazel Innotabs. They call them their "Kindles" because they love playing on my Kindle Fire.

 And Delilah got a little toy laptop. We can program it so it says her name and stuff. She gets so excited every time it says her name.

 Santa seemed to enjoy the snack we left him.

 Santa brought each child a movie. Hazel got Monster High. Erick got the new Batman. Evan got the new Spiderman. And Delilah got the newest Tinkerbell movie.

 Then we opened presents from under the tree.
 We got Erick and Evan Scentsy Buddies. I had even tricked them into letting me know which scent they wanted in it.

 Hazel got new barbies and a new scent pak for her Scentsy buddy.

 Evan got a really cool pirate ship.

 The dogs enjoyed their gifts while we opened presents.

 Erick got a Bat cave.

 Hazel got the art kit she asked for a a pad of real artist paper.

 Delilah got a Cinderella doll and a baby doll that pretends to eat and drink.

Later that day we went to my parents house for more gifts and Christmas dinner. When we got there Evan's tooth was really hurting and he was pretty swollen so I called the emergency number for the dentist and spent a good hour or two trying to find a pharmacy that was open so they could call in a prescription. In case this happens to you Walgreen's is open on Christmas, I didn't think they would be so we didn't even bother trying them. We tried the hospital pharmacy which was closed but had a list of open pharmacies. Because they were the only pharmacy open around it took them 3 hours to fill the prescription but by night time Evan was on an antibiotic and feeling much better.

Anyways Isaac got me the Norwex mop I really wanted so it was a good Christmas. And Evan's tooth made it a memorable one :)