We here at the Pellow home have a special pact with Santa. We'll lighten your load a bit on Christmas Eve if you come the day before. It works great. The kids get their gifts, we have our own little private Christmas at home and we all head to Grandma's the night of Christmas Eve for it to all happen again (except for the Santa part. We are the only Santa "believers" in that group). So, on Dec. 23, we wrapped, filled stockings, left cookies and reindeer food for Santa, Mrs. Claus and the reindeer and went to bed. I'm loving that the kids don't feel any great need to wake up ridiculously early and pull us from our slumber. We slept in. The kids ate breakfast (and the leftover crumbs from Santa) and we opened the presents. The biggest hits? The matching American Girl jammies (despite the fact that they are enormous on my tiny little girl), a spinning teeter totter, an orange chair and all of Tate's Toy Story insanity (Toy Story dolls, Toy Story walkie-talkies, Toy Story game, Toy Story cards, Toy Story EVERYTHING!). Rowan did mention when she opened a cute pair of shoes that shoes are not an appropriate gift. "Mom, I DO NOT want shoes for a present." After it all, they both stated that their favorite gift was the candy (even though we hid virtually all of it later and they didn't actually eat it!) Note to self: avoid malls, Target, and online shopping and head straight for the Holland Peanut Store for Christmas gifts next year. The kids picked out gifts for each other this year. Rowan picked Tate a singing Toy Story card at Hallmark and while I balked at the $8 price tag (for a card!), it remains one of his favorite gifts. Tate got Rowan a watch. He picked the one he wanted and was such a good little brother at the store. Lance and I pared down the gift giving a bit and bought tickets to Wicked instead, which we loved. A nice, adult night out is much better than something I would have probably just bought for myself anyway!
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