xmas cheer

and very few photos...BOTH of my cameras' batteries died. And we were out of AAs. ACK! Bad mom. (hey! they worked the day before!) However, G's dad was taking some snaps & some vids, so I may be able to get a few to post from him.

Overall, it was pretty darn exciting. Snick was spending the night xmas eve & was able to wake up for presents & stay for (early) dinner before heading back up to Boulder for work. (Darn that movie industry for releasing flicks on holidays when EVERYONE should be hanging with family & not out & about at a movie theatre).

The biggest thrills were:

Madness (new nickname) got an American Girl doll. After which she was quite content to unwrap the rest of her gifts with one hand, as the doll didn't leave her right arm. In fact, the doll -Lisa- hasn't left her side yet.

Feefer got a new bike. She so badly wanted to ride it outside -but we had snow that day (12% chance of snow on xmas, according to G's dad! Excellent!) She tried to ride it around the t.v. room, but could only go about 6 feet; turning was impossible. She asked if I would take it upstairs so she could ride it around the house, but that didn't seem like a good idea -fun, but could be dangerous. Too bad it snowed; it was 57 the day before, which would have been superb had xmas been on the 24th.

LaLa (new nickname; more on that later) got a Smart Cycle -a Fisher Price contraption that looks like a plastic child size exercise bike hooked up to the t.v. with educational (?) video games powered by the child's pedaling. It's now upstairs hooked up to the girls' t.v. & she pedals it even when it's not on. HOWEVER, the biggest squeal from her came when she opened the Freddie Fish computer game. Apparently, Santa could have left a bunch of computer games -instead of the "big" gift- for the tech-y geek girl & she would have been happy.

Snick got an iPod nano. I always feel bad because she get's so few gifts compared to the other girls; but her few are just as or more expensive. AND she gets a second xmas at her dad's house! (Who says divorced kids are worse off? I've always thought that she has a far better lifestyle -but for the inconvenience- than if her dad & I had stayed together.)

Another big hit was the globe. Feefer can't read yet & doesn't really understand the concept, but she is enthralled with it. They also like the "trampette" (mini trampoline, but "trampette" -word they've gleaned from "You Are What You Eat" BBC t.v. program- sounds so much more...cool? British? unique?)

Okay, so the BEST family gift was...the Wii!!! Santa was able to score one in the last couple days before xmas. Whew! It was down to the wire really. It's a blast & quite a work out for sedentary kids (and adults). Maddie & I both had sore muscles when we woke up yesterday (sad, but true). Everyone has created their own Mii. Now you see where "LaLa" and "Madness" originated. Madster also created Mii's for V, Lindz, Trev, Ro, and Snick. So we have our whole "local" family onboard. We've only tried tennis, bowling, boxing and baseball. Even the little girls love to play. It's great for virtual activity but the actual activity would be better (duh). I want to take the girls bowling. The Wii just doesn't compare to throwing an 8 lb. ball down the lane.