Holiday update (part I)

For anyone who's paying attention, I'm a week late with an update. Give me a break - I had holiday induced writer's block! (Well, that and scanner issues but hopefully I'll get those worked out and you'll see what I've been trying to post).

Well Santa yet again defied time and space and arrived at millions of homes around the world. Most importantly for Erika and Sasha, he arrived at ours... On Christmas Eve we went out to dinner to give "Santa" time to get do some last minute wrapping. The girls were in the door first and by the time Joe and I came in they were nowhere to be found: they were both upstairs putting on their pyjamas so Santa could come!

Not wanting to be woken up at six am, we put on a movie (a new version of Rudolf with John Goodman - do yourself a favor and avoid it at all costs. We've "lost" it and sent it to Goodwill). After the movie, up to bed they went. They were almost too excited to sleep. I found them at the window with the window open about six inches. They told me they were looking for Santa. Erika said she heard sleighbells.

The next morning, Erika came into my bed about 7:15. She laid there and talked about Santa ("I wonder if he came?" "I hope he ate our cookies" "Did you leave the Christmas tree lights on so Santa would know to come?", etc. etc. etc.) At 7:45 Sasha made a noise. Erika was up and out of bed in a second. "Sasha! Sasha! Santa was here!!" Ten seconds later the sounds of ripping paper was heard.

After breakfast, Joe and I enjoyed a very quiet day while the girls played with all their presents. First they colored in several pen on velvet pictures from Oma. Then they played with the princess tea set from Tante Cindy. After lunch, they rode their new scooters around the house for about three hours. Monday (a holiday for Sharon) was equally busy with play. It was great ...