Christmas is supposed to be such a magical time of year. So, why is it that every year, as I get older, I get more and more Scrooge-like? It took all my effort this year to get our decorations up. In fact, we still don't even have lights up outside... and at this stage in the game, I kind of feel like, what is the point? I still have about 90% of my Christmas shopping to do and the thought of heading to Toys R' Us any time in the near future makes me want to just plop myself down in front of the kegerator and never move. Yes, this year, I am a little, more Abominable Snowman than Prep & Landing Elf.

Right now, the biggest thing is that my Goombas just don't seem to give two hoots about whether they are on the naughty list or the nice list. I'll give you one guess as to which side they are leaning towards. We started with an Elf on the Shelf. I love it. I thought, what a great idea! They will flip for this and it will totally make them behave. Enter fork, stage right, so I can eat my words. The first day worked great. We named her Merry and the Goombas were all very excited to please her so she could report back to Santa. By day 4, as exciting as it is to wake up and search for her every morning, her threats of telling "Santa" just aren't doing anything to deter naughty behavior. So, in addition to Merry checking in, I actually posted a "Naughty List" and a "Nice List" on the wall. By Christmas, Santa will check it and you better hope you have more marks on the Nice List if you want some presents. Hmmm... Let's see how that is going...

On the other hand, I guess we have had a few fun holiday moments so far.

Luigi loves to watch "Ru-dog, the Red-nose Rein-deal." No, that is not a Harlem version of Rudolf, but I think that would make a great Christmas program. Also, he loves the Christmas song about the "police man and his dad." It took me a few minutes to figure out that he was talking about "Feliz Navidad."

At dinner the other night, we were talking about armpits. (Please don't ask why we were talking about armpits. Isn't that just normal dinner conversation?) Something was said about stinky armpits for Daddy and Mario, then something about moldy armpits for Luigi, and then Peach lifted her shirt, raised her arm, pointed to her pit and said, "Look! I have sparkles in my armpit!!!" Yes, you do my little princess. Mommy's pits "sparkle," too. Other people call it sweating... Semantics.

My ever-growing pre-teen (dear me, is he almost a 'tween already??) is counting down days till Christmas break when he can "finally relax from all that work at school and play all day at home." I told him I think it would be awesome to be back in school again, hanging out with my friends, learning new things... He looked at me as if a second head just popped out of my neck.

Our Christmas tree only has ornaments on the very, very top and the very, very bottom. The middle is sort of bare due to meddlesome little hands and one very spunky Koopa Troopa. It looks a little strange, but it is ours and we love it.

Today, though, was one of those moments, when you really believe that it is all worth it. After a bit of a stressful morning, trying to get into the groove of Christmas break, we spent the afternoon making decorations. I printed out a bunch of free holiday coloring pages, laid all the crayons and markers out on the table and told the Goombas to go to town. Three hours, two bags of popcorn, 16 juice boxex (for the kids), 2 beers (for me), 42 coloring pages, one roll of scotch tape and hundreds of Goomba giggles later... we have an incredibly colorful home and I have a beautiful memory of my babies enjoying time together. It doesn't get any better...

This is what Christmas is all about.

Cheers and love,
~Daisy