This is part 1 of 2, because there is another gift that has yet to be received. It is some where between Cleveland and Japan right now, and more than likely it is at some sort of customs receiving place in Cleveland, which should take at least a day to get released and start making its way here. At that time I will be able to take another picture or two and complete Christmas.

I believe that while there were not a great many gifts under the tree this year the kids did get exactly what they wanted. I know there are pictures where you can scarcely see the tree for all the wrapped boxes in front of it, but in a way this is more of the direction Christmas is going to be going in anyway. The kids are getting older, and older kids results in more expensive and smaller gifts.

Eddy kept saying that he got “mostly” everything he wanted. He is upstairs currently sorting through probably over 100 of those Yu-Gi-Oh cards that he wanted. He has no idea what the package is, but I did tell him that there was one more Christmas gift that he would be getting this year. He does not think it is the one very special thing that he wants though, because I already told him that they do not sell that toy in the United States.

Patty did on the other hand get everything that she wanted. It is very difficult to make the “final” gift a surprise when she gets an itunes gift card and an iHome player for an iPod nano, but some how she did still manage to look surprise when she unwrapped the pink iPod nano. I have already instructed her on exactly what I expect, which is that she will not be taking that thing out of the house and especially not to school. If she loses it or it gets broken it will not be replaced.

I made the kids get dressed again this year, and they both protested and told me that I have never made them do that before. I am glad that I took pictures of last year. I think they were actually dressed better last year.

I made waffles this morning and made them take showers as well. They woke up really early though. That probably has something to do with the fact that they went to bed early last night. I have to find a way to keep them up a little longer from now on, because there is no promise that I will be up and ready to go this early.

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Better late than never? I was just going through the camera, because it is Christmas and I am starting to put pictures up from this morning. I know it is still only 9:30 AM now, but the kids woke up early and decided to force the issue this morning. This quick post on my birthday first and then we can see Christmas.

Much like other birthday’s I got an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. I like them, because it is like the best of both worlds for you in one thing. Plus, to be completely honest I do not like frosting and cake anymore. I like ice cream. Maybe some day I will not like that either.

This is another tradition. It should be pretty easy to figure out what started this, but just in case you cannot figure it out my birthday happens to fall on Halloween, so I get a basket of candy for my birthday.

I am a little ashamed to say this, but I do not have any of these shirts any longer. This is probably why I forgot to go ahead and post these pictures two months ago. Yeah, I returned these and got a gift certificate. That gift certificate went towards Christmas gifts, so in a way it is sort of appropriate that I should find these pictures and remember what happened to this particular gift.

I know there are a lot of people that can not make it through a game of Monopoly and for some families and friends the end of the game is ceremoniously decided when someone either storms out in a rage or when the board is made air born with pieces still having been placed on it. This is not the case here though. The kids and I played a game, and while it was close I ended up winning. They did a good job for the most part. I think they get it. I do not know how they get it exactly, because I cannot remember playing this game with them until this point.