Christmas!

The tree went up, and happily Rob found the PERFECT spot for it.  Finally.  It only took us 9 years of living in the same exact house to figure it out.

We didn't get a good picture of it, but you can kind of see it in this one taken Christmas morning:

It's in front of the archway.  When Rob suggested that spot, I was skeptical.  Take away the beautiful archway that we just uncovered?  No way!  But it was GENIUS.  Every morning I got to walk out of my bedroom and immediately see a Christmas tree.  What?!  I loved it.

Some Christmas picture love:

That's the old wheelbarrow that Rob got from his Grandma when he was like 6.  I know a guy, and he re-did it.  This is what it used to look like:

Isn't that amazing?!  I LOVE the results.

New pajamas!  The kids are getting so old.  Miciah and Elijah opted to pick their own this year.

Miciah made this marble course for the boys.  It's SO cool.

And while these aren't formal pictures of Before and After house projects (trust me, there will be those - probably after all the home projects are done (are they ever done) come March-ish), doesn't the new carpet look great?!  We paid extra for the top quality pad and super crazy soft carpet that I would like to sleep on.  Worth it.  Our house is small enough that re-carpeting the whole thing really wasn't much of an expense.  One more reason to love a tiny house.

I'm super excited that this is the last year of the Santa Claus thing.  I mean, we'll always have Santa in our lives, but not like this, with the kids thinking Santa is maybe a real person.  I'm happy to be done with it.  I wasn't raised with Santa, so I think it's a strange tradition that's slightly condescending and deceptive.  I've learned to love the Santa that Rob has chosen to give our kids.  I've come to think that Santa Claus is a gift.  I should write about it, actually, because it's been an interesting journey, learning to love Santa Claus.  I even dreamt about him.  Anyways.  ...  That is my Christmas gift to myself next year:  Being done with Santa Claus.

A funny Christmas story:
Elijah really wanted this game called Lazer Maze.  We told the kids to not expect too much above and beyond our homemade gifts, but that they would likely get one or two things, so they needed to choose carefully.  Also, I told them it needed to be some sort of educational type toy.  Cause we're nerds like that.  Elijah picked out Lazer Maze.

It was out of stock everywhere we looked, on-line and off, not to be back in stock until March (birthday gift?).  At one of the websites where it was miraculously still available, it was selling for almost $100!  That's crazy talk.  It's a $20 game.  So we had to tell him on Christmas morning what happened, why he didn't get the one game he wanted, and how we would get it for him when it was available.  He was a little sad, but understanding.

The funny part is what follows:  We skyped with Rob's parents on Christmas afternoon.  Rob's sister was there, visiting from Utah, and she had picked out a single gift for each of her kids.  Each of the kids showed us what they got, and when it was the 11-year-old boy's turn, he said, "I got this weird game called Lazer Maze."  We just started laughing.  Chiara had found the last game available at an educational toy store, and bought it on a whim.  Ha!

Sometimes life is like that, right?