T'was the night before Christmas...

and all through the house, not a creature was stirring (okay, mom and dad were), not even a mouse (I sure hope we don't have any mice). The children were all nestled, snug in their beds while visions of sugarplums (okay, make that chex mix, cookies, bakugans, books, super heroes, etc) danced in there heads. While I full of stress and dad feeling the same, were so thankful that Ethan (who was on Santa watch FOREVER) finally fell asleep. We sprang into action and wrapped all the gifts... okay, you get the picture...

Ethan was in full Santa mode this year, waiting for Santa to arrive. He even placed a toy plane standing up in front of the door when we weren't looking. When I tucked him in, he said "mom, will Santa come through the door?" I said no honey, he's coming down the chimney. He said "Darn, then that plane will never fall!" Every sound was Santa and every light was Rudolph. Which was cute, but though we say every year we aren't going to wait until Christmas eve to wrap... we do. Every year. So, we wanted him to GO. TO. SLEEP. I mean, once you pull everything from all their hiding places throughout the house and cars, drag all the wrapping paper down, determine which wrapping paper for what (if you know what I mean) and organize... well... that puts us a little past 1:30 am. Again, Ethan was awake forever!

Ethan's note to Santa this year was too funny. He drew some pictures (Batarang of course, cookies and Santa) and then dictated the note to me. He actually wrote the Dear Santa and the Love Ethan part himself. Some of the funny stuff from the note was Ethan telling him not to get his beard all chocolaty (from the chocolate candy on the gingerbread boys and peanut butter kiss cookies) - actually, this was very funny to Ethan. And at the end he told me to write "I love you real, real bad." (I had to hold back the giggle)