Christmas Guilt 2010

Slickdeals; a cursing and a blessing. I and Duane both have a weakness for buying things that are on sale though I'd say that's he's better at avoiding unnecessary items. This year, our kids Christmas was brought to them by Slickdeals. If you've never heard of the site Slickdeals.net, beware that it may suck you in! At the site many people post online deals by large sellers, like: Amazon, JCPenny, Target, Groupon, basically any place there's a good deal goin' on.

This year, I was sucked into the deals. I did pass up A LOT of deals, but some I thought, were irresistible, like a Schwinn tricycle for Tristen (because Kalvin's old one broke :-( ) that was on sale for $35 with free shipping down from other retailers at $80-$100. Or a litebrite set for $10 at 50% off (I probably got it mostly because I always wanted one growing up). Then I found all kinds of brand new games on Craigslist for $5 each (and the lady lived 1/2 a mile from my house). So, from her we picked up CandyLand, Don't Spill the beans, and a neat version of Operation--you know the classics.
I could go on, but I want to portray that the kids got WAY too much for Christmas. I don't think I spent a ton of $$ on the kids, but they had too much to open. So, next year we decided that Kalvin and Tristen will each get one nice gift from us and maybe a small one as well (and clothes too if they need them), but that they don't need much more from us because both Grandma's and Grandpa's sent gifts as well.
Let me back up for one second, soon after Thanksgiving I pondered often the true meaning of Christmas, of giving and thinking of Christ's birth and how we were to portray that to our children. I guess I didn't take that thought far enough to stop from buying gifts for the kids, but until Christmas Eve Kalvin was very excited for the gift he made for Tristen (a wooden snake from Michaels that he painted and took a long time to wrap nicely with ribbon and a card) and what he picked out for Duane (a can of peanuts).
Christmas Eve we went to our friends house in Rensseslaer. They are in the same program and year as Duane at Albany Med and our children are the same age. Kalvin gave something to Sonnet and Tristen to Sela. We had a great time and one of the best meals I've had EVER! Yashar's parents were in town and cooked a pursian dinner of Lamb, Salmon, some awesome cooked vegetables, coleslaw, oh and special gravy for the lamb and I can not forget the rice! After the amazing dinner where we all stuffed ourselves, she brought out bread pudding with fancy vanilla ice cream. I was in heaven! And to top it off before we left that night, Yashar's mom and dad, who were visiting, gave me a Target gift card to get something for the boys.
After a wonderful dinner, Kalvin was SO excited to give Sonnet her Christmas gift. She opened it excitedly and dressed herself up with all the Tinkerbell accessories we had picked out for her. Then, after she had some time to look it all over, Sonnet (and her mom) gave Kalvin his gift (I hadn't told him he would be getting something because I wanted him to be more excited to give her a gift). I wish I could have had on video his reaction to the gift being presented to him because it was priceless. He paused momentarily, looked at the gift in his lap, and excitedly ask, "For ME?!!" he asked with a very surprised look on his face.
"Yes!" both moms said in unison and with smiles on our faces.
Then he looked up at me and back over to Sonnets mom and asked a little more quietly and slowly, "Can I open it?!". It was a precious moment to see him so excited that he too received a present, but at the same time it's when he realized that he too receives presents for Christmas. I am ruined for next year? Or will he somewhat forget what Christmas brought this year so I can start over?

Sonnet got him a cool dump truck with a drill and screws so you can take apart the truck and put it back together. Tristen and Kalvin BOTH love it!

  

I didnt' get a picture, but Sela here, got him a water doodle pad. We already have one, but they are fun.

 I have to let the kids take my picture every once in a while so that one day I can remember what I USED to look like (not that it's all that great). lol, but I know it's only gonna get worse.

 Tristen really likes playing with the camera, here he is reaching for it.

 Here are all the kiddos. I had the boys dressed very nice before we got to the Ettekals, but Kal took off all his nice clothes and shoes by the time I could get a nice picture of all of them.

 Sela and Tristen. The two babies of the group.

 

 We had a great time at the party and when we got home, we found a bag of reindeer food from our neighbor. Kalvin was able to spread it out on the ground outside so the reindeer wouldn't forget to come to our house. It has glitter in oatmeal. There was snow on the ground when he threw it out, so now every time Kalvin sees a sparkle in the snow he says there's reindeer food out.

The boys went to bed, then Santa came. Before leaving Santa left this nice note (though Christmas morning neither of them heard what Santa said because they were too excited to see what was behind the wrapping paper).

 As embarrassed as I am to show it, I had to include a picture of all the gifts because it will remind me to never go overboard again. Some of the gifts I had saved for several months to wrap them up for Christmas so they added to the pile. Also, I'd say that 4 large boxes were from grandparents.
The kiddos took 4 hours to get through all the gifts.

 

 This is a very fun bouncing ball game from Grandma and Grandpa to Tristen, though Kalvin equally enjoys playing with it.

Tristen is still a little small, but was thrilled to get this tricycle. We're hoping that by summer his feet will reach the peddles.

For now, this is the easiest way for Tristen to get around on the bike (and they both enjoy it!).

 My mom sent some magnifying glasses with lights (probably for reading at night).
Kalvin found another purpose for them.

 All Kalvin had asked Santa for (between the 4-5 times we saw various Claus's) was a hammer. We picked up a Lil' Helper kit for him at Lowes (that ironically enough said was for 14+ years).
Gotta love that that: a 14+ Lil' Helper.