tales from the quintessential fat girl: presents

11/27/12

{leapster}

chloe got a leapster either last year or the year before for christmas. ian and izz are at the age where they love it too. seeing them play with these kind of toys bring me back to my childhood. i was a HUGE fan of gameboy and could kick in in tetris like no one else. i also loved my speak and spell. you remember those???

shhhhhhhhhhhh, don't tell but santa is bringing them each their own this year as well. :) i love these kind of toys because yes they are playing video games, but they are learning. how can you go wrong??!

what do your kids love playing with?

1/1/12

{the christmas bell}

ian's teachers had a polar express party for the kids at school. they got a "ticket" to the train and watched the movie in class. they also taped a bell with a red yarn string under each kids chair for them to take home. {or at least that's how ian tells the story}.

ian LOVES this bell. what he loves even more? giving the bell away. and then taking it back. he's a complete indian giver. sweet huh? really though, it was the absolute cutest thing. he had a piece of white tissue paper that he "wrapped" the bell in and then he would gift it to people. i remember the look on his face when he gave it to me. it was the same look he had when he gave it to lisa, my mom, my sister, chloe and everyone else. it was sheer joy. the sheer joy you have when you give something that you know they will LOVE. when it's something you LOVE too. so he would gift the bell to each person and then he would take it back.

my mom opened it and thought it was the sweetest gift until i told her she couldn't keep it. i told her to wrap it back up and give it back to him. then she watched him give it to my sisters. and then it was the sweetest gift again.

ian has such a sweet soul. i hope that never fades away.

12/27/11

{our christmas day}

i can't believe that christmas is over. the whole month leads up to just a few measly hours and then it's gone. there is something special about christmas. it's a feeling in the air. a feeling in our hearts. it's the time of year where {hopefully} we are thinking of others and not ourselves.

our christmas day was one word. perfect. i slept until 9am. something i don't think i've ever ever done on christmas before but since the kids were with their dad, lisa and i got to sleep in. it was heavenly. we woke up and had a nice breakfast in front of the tree. we watched a hockey special. which was perfect for lisa i'm sure. :) it was a documentary type show and was very interesting.

at 11am i went and got the kids. they had already had a great day with john, jess, will and conner and they were all in good moods. always a plus. ;) we came home and started opening santa presents. we took our time. we watched each person open their gift and we {lisa and i at least} enjoyed it. the kids loved all of their gifts. the big hits seemed to be the dress up clothes that santa brought the smaller kids and the squinky house that lisa and i got them. bailey loved his tech deck stuff and his skateboard.

then lisa opened her gifts. we had a budget of what we were supposed to spend on each other this year. i did go over budget a little bit. but not anything crazy. she had said that she had gone over too. no biggie. so lisa had opened all of her things and then i gave her the best one. i had got her the full 60 to history book about the bruins winning the stanley cup last year. i was so proud of myself. it was the perfect gift. i even prefaced it by telling her days before that i didn't get her anything bruins. well, then i opened my gifts from lisa. the best one, an iMac. yup. she didn't go a little over budget, she went waaaaaaaaay over budget. not that i'm complaining. i love it! i couldn't be happier. :) but what a brat right?! at least in my favor she's kind of set the standard a bit high on her end and my birthday is coming up. i kid. i kid. {maybe}.

after presents were all open we hung out for a bit and then we had lunch. after lunch the kids took a nap. yes we are meanies that made them nap on christmas day. but, it also meant that we got to nap. :) i napped on the couch and fell asleep watching The Goonies. lisa's all time favorite movie and one of mine as well.

after our naps, we headed over to lisa's mom's house for dinner and presents. it was a lovely time. chloe's pillow pet, ian's bus, izz's zoo and bay's nike clothes were the big hits. lisa was most excited about some dish washing accessories and our new vacuum. she's quite domesticated now. :)

when we got home, i ~~threw~~ tucked everyone into bed and opened my iMac. is it just me or do Apple products have a certain smell to them? it's like your favorite smell from childhood. it brings you right back. the Apple smell brings me straight back to my first iPhone and how excited i was.

all in all it was a fantastic christmas. i can't wait until next year! {except i can cause time goes by waaaaaaaay too fast}.

here are a few pics from my iPhone. i did take pics of the kids opening presents with my "real" camera but with the computer switch, they aren't available right now.

pre-chaos...

balsam, our scout elf left the kids a present. it's a stuffed elf that they can hug and squeeze and fight over until next year when balsam comes back.