We'll Know It's Santa By the Paper

Delaney: "OOOOOOH, I GOT ONE TOO!?!"

Baby: "YES! I knew it!"

Jackson: "Wait, ohhh, cool I forgot about that one!"

Madison: Chuckles to herself and looks slyly to me who is all smiles on the couch wrapped in my blankie.

Delaney: "That's it? Totally not what I expected AT ALL!"

Delaney is just like me. She opened her gift from Santa and immediately her bottom lip quivered and stuck out before she began to cry.

Charlie was thrilled to FINALLY get his Lego Police Headquarters that he fondly refers to as his cop lego set. He asked for this from Santa last year, but apparently the elves were slackers and didn't make enough. The plus side is that Santa got it for $30 cheaper this year. I hate how expensive these Lego sets are, but the boys love Legos. It is the only thing, besides the Wii, that they play with. And, Baby wants to be a cop. What kind of mom would I be if I didn't encourage his dreams. He would be such a good cop too. He is always whining about what is fair and what isn't.

Jackson asked for no less than 20 Star Wars Lego sets from Santa, so when he opened this one I think he forgot that he wanted it. He had his heart set on the Slave I, but Santa cut back this year only affording Jackson Emperor Palpatine's Shuttle. He was just as happy though. He had it put together in less than an hour after opening gifts. Jackson is very good at building and fixing things. He doesn't even need directions. He is able to just figure things out. He reminds me of dad a lot in that way. His dream job would be working at Lego one day, maybe I'll have an engineer!

Madison is our pancake maker around here. And this year she couldn't come up with one thing that she wanted from Santa or us, making it rather hard to shop for her. I won't make pancakes anymore because all of my pans are horrible. Madison will make them despite the pans, but complains the whole time, so Santa brought her a brand-spankin-new Paula Deen griddle and Giada non-stick spatula with a box of Hungry Jack pancake mix. Later Madison said, "I think this is more of a gift for you than me." I said, "Hey, Santa probably didn't know what to get you either. I love it, though."

PARENTAL ADVISORY: DO NOT LET SANTA-BELIEVING CHILDREN READ PAST THIS!

The rule is: Santa either wraps in the green paper with Santas on it or he doesn't wrap his gift at all. This rule is the one that let the cat out of the bag eventually for Madison. She found a roll of Santa's paper in the basement when I sent her looking for a gift bag one day. Weeks later she asked why I had the same paper as Santa. Believing ceased.

As a sidenote, Jackson noticed that his gift from Santa had a sticker on the bottom that said "Purchased at ToysRUs." He showed it to me days later with a smirk on his face. I said, "Maybe the elves ran out of that gift and he had to buy it before he came." He said, "Maybe Santa's a phony." He smiled and walked out of the room leaving me cracking up and trying to hide it as Baby stared me down with a look of intense thought. Needless to say, we may only have one believer in 2011 unless the boys get to her first!