Merry Christmas 2008!

The best gifts this year were our kids expressions and happiness. We managed to succeed in making sure that each of our seven got a couple of things on their wish lists and a few really good surprise gifts, too.

After a flurry of present opening, somewhat controlled since we hand a gift to everyone and then say, "1, 2, 3, GO!", we spent the morning prying toys out of complex packaging, inserting batteries (even in a puzzle!), and assembling certain gifts. Brother and Kevin both got some cardboard blocks that had to be carefully folded since they start out flat. We also had a difficult time figuring out how their new Transformers actually transform. We still can't find a head that popped off one of them.

It wasn't all work and no play, however. Daniel and I spent some time that night playing the new Playstation 2 games he got. I finally gave up on ever receiving the Lego Starwars 2 game I ordered from Amazon for our anniversary back in August and went ahead and bought it for Daniel as a Christmas gift at a local GameStop. I think we can all agree that this was one of the best Christmases we've had.