It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year......

My favorite Christmas pictures are the early morning, puffy-eyed, bed-head pictures of the kids just before we open presents. The anticipation is almost tangible, and for that brief moment everyone is happy, no sugar has been ingested yet, and no one is disappointed in what they didn't get! I love Christmas morning!

Sam got a dinosaur that moves and sounds real, and he loved it, even though it scared him at first. Lincoln loves his remote control helicopter, and Emma loved her MP3 player. Tessa ate wrapping paper and tossed aside her toys.

The real surprise came, though, when they opened controllers to a Wii. We told them we would never get one. They were all surprised, and we have all had a great time with it! The favorites right now are Lego Star Wars and Wii tennis - Ted still creams us in tennis, but it is still fun anyway.

The hardest person to shop for, however, is Ted. It's not very much fun to give the same thing year after year - more bike shop gift cards. I know they always get used, but I always try to surprise him with something. As he has become more and more serious about biking I have become more and more worried (for no real reason) about his safety. I always worry about some driver not paying attention and....well, you get my point. For this reason I decided that this year I would buy him something to help him see traffic. I bought him one of those small mirrors that you attach to your helmet to help you see what is coming up behind you. As Ted opened the gift he tried to tell me as politely as possible that he appreciated my gesture, but he would rather take his chances than put the mirror on his helmet. So, I guess it is back to gift certificates.