"All my life I've wondered something, and now's my chance to find out. I'm going to find the answer to a question that's puzzled the world for centuries. Does Santa Claus sleep with his whiskers outside or in?" ~ Miracle on 34th Street

With Rob and Jilly, the magic has been in our house for sometime.  But it has only just begun for you, Mac!  Both you girls were so excited to see what Santa had brought you.  Apparently, he made good use of the house key and this year and he even left us a little note.  The look on your face screamed 'MAGIC'!  Your BIG request from Santa was for him to bring you a pink heart and a yellow star.  And of course, he came through.  Mr. Claus was most excellent this year; he brought Robert enough gift cards to put towards his white iPod touch, Jillian's pink violin and Mac's pink heart and yellow star.  Funny how everyone of you requested something in a specific colour...Santa also brought plenty of other things, but those seemed to be the most important.  Everyone was so happy.  We were all up at 4:00 am, we finished unwrapping everything by 6:00, and had a HUGE feed immediately after.  By 8:00 we were all back in bed and slept until 10:30.  When we woke up, you played calmly (yes, re-read that last part) with your new toys for most of the day.  Turkey dinner, which was prepared by your father, was served by 12:30 and we all pitched in to help clean up afterwards.  By 2:00pm we were fed and well rested.  In fact, we were so well rested that we decided to kick this up a little and go sliding and skiing in out back yard for about an hour.  The day was perfect.

"T'was The Night Before Christmas..." ~ Clement Clake Moore

It was Christmas eve and your father wanted to read you a few stories before you went to sleep.  We had done so much that day: we decorated ginger bread cookies, wrapped presents, played games, drank hot chocolate and left treats for Santa, hung the key outside the door to make it easier for him to come in and just before that, we sprinkled rain deer food around the outside of the house to ensure Rudolph and all of the other rain deer would not forget our old house.  I'd say we made it pretty easy for them to stop by!  By the end of the day, EVERYONE was exhausted!  No one fought going to sleep, although I predict next year will be a different story.  A story that will follow the famous Christmas classic.

“The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?” ~ Pablo Picasso

Last night was Paint Night; only instead of canvas, it was on our faces!  After a long discussion and much debate, Jilly decided to be a cat, Mac wanted to be a butterfly and Robert wanted to be some kind mythical creature.  I thought it was cool.  In any case, you girls stayed up far past your bedtime and paint got everywhere, including all over MY face (which is a photo that will remain unposted)!  You turned me into a rainbow!  There was so much paint on my face that it was dripping off and my face is still slightly stained pink from the amount of red that was applied ;-)  You all loved getting your faces done and some of you (who shall remain nameless) insisted on sleeping with your paint still on.  We woke up with a few interesting looking pillow cases ...