Christmas Is All Around Us

And it won't stop.

Tomorrow will be the fourth of five stops in the Christmas Tour '12.  That's in addition to the Christmas that the kids had with their parents at visits last week.  We have now done Christmas with Leonard and Penny at The Wife's parents' house, Christmas morning (on the 27th) with Leonard, Penny and The Kid, Christmas with The Kid at The Wife's parents' house and tomorrow will be the next to last stop at The Wife's brother and sister-in-law's house for Christmas with all of the kids.  

As predicted, they got a lot of wildly inappropriate things for kids their ages from the parents.  No two and four year old should be given books of stickers... unless their parents (or foster parents in this case) would like the house decorated with Dora or trucks or whatever they happened to be.  But hey... at least they got toothbrushes and toothpaste.  And the toothpaste was the non-fluoride version, which for two kids that know how to brush their teeth already, is pretty useless.  Other things included eighteen packets of fruit snacks, books that neither of them can read yet, and some glittery gluesticks that they will not be decorating our walls or carpet with anytime soon.

Santa brought the kids two gifts each... including a trike for Leonard that he can actually pedal and some My Little Ponies for Penny.

After their Santa gifts were opened, we informed all of the children that they had more gifts, but they'd have to work for them.  We hid all of the other gifts throughout the kitchen, living room, playroom, dining room and bathroom.  Planning ahead for our eventual forgetting gifts, we had a list of where everything was located.  It took the kids about fifteen minutes to find everything, with The Kid leading the charge... or perhaps the only one actually grasping the idea.  They gathered the gifts, opened them and then we had some chocolate cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  The kids spent most of the rest of they day playing with all of the new toys and things that they received as gifts.

Oscar was at his grandparents' for Christmas, but he got to open his gifts, with help, after daycare Thursday evening.  The book was the best tasting gift that he received, as you can tell by the picture below.