Here Comes Santa...

The kids have heard, "If you don't stop doing X, then Santa won't bring you any presents" (or a variation of that threat) so many times in the past few weeks, that I started to wonder if they actually cared if Santa came at all.

After a wonderful dinner and some present opening at my mom's on Christmas Eve, Satchel finally took an interest in Santa's visit.

"We never put up any lights!" he said as we drove home around 10:30pm. "How will Santa find our house? How will he know we want him to visit?"

When we got home, Warren opened up the Christmas tote and started unpacking lights. (Until this point we had only unpacked the stockings.) As Jiro and I snuggled on the giant bean bag and watched one of the four DVDs he received for Christmas, Satchel and Warren strung every rope of lights we own down the walkway and across the yard. They created what looked like a perfect landing pad for Santa's sleigh.

As the clock struck midnight, Warren started unpacking the tree.

"Are you kidding me?" I asked, grumpily. "Where are you going to put it?"

As he looked around our very crowded living room, he turned to Satchel and said, "Let's put the tree outside too."

And off they went.


Next they unpacked some snow globes and decorated a table for Santa where they eventually put out milk and cookies. Satchel was psyched and felt sure that Santa would not pass him up now.

Once both monkeys were asleep, Warren and I played Santa. I filled up their stockings with Ben 10, Tomagotchi, Pokemon, & Nintendo goodness. When I carried them into the living room, Warren showed me the notes he had written from Santa instructing them to behave and listen to their parents and two small red Chinese take-out boxes filled with small pieces of coal. He then took the stockings and hid them under the sofa. He was clearly cracking himself up with the magnitude of his wit!

We heard the first stirrings this morning around 7:30am. I thought for sure the monkeys would run directly to the living room, but they ran to our room instead. Amazingly they both crawled in our bed and fell back asleep. (Thank you Santa!)

Around 8:15am Satchel was getting antsy. Warren convinced him to get up, get dressed, and go on a bike ride with him while Jiro and I slept. (Thanks again, Santa!)

At 9:00am sharp, Jiro's eyes popped open while Satchel simultaneously came barreling back into the bedroom. "Jiro, wanna go see what Santa brought?" he asked excitedly.

"I want to get dressed first," he replied.

Okay...

Eventually we all filed into the living room and watched as Satchel tried to make sense of the scene.


Surprisingly, the coal made him giddy. He looked at it in disbelief, wondering if Santa had really dissed him. Two seconds later he saw a stocking peeking out from under the sofa and the ruse was up.


Most of the electronics paled in comparison to the dinosaur eggs that were sand-packed and contained a small plastic dinosaur inside.


Once excavated, the dinosaurs lost their charm. All eyes then went to the box that came from their grandmother in California.

I won't say what was in the box, but I will tell you that I just beat everyone bowling in the living room. Now Warren and the monkeys are busy scrolling through hairstyles and eyebrows creating each of us a mini Mii.