I love it...........

I saw this sign a while back and just laughed at it...........there is truth to it :) so this was one of my presents and it's great!!!!!

Our Christmas was good. I think mom and dad were into the kid's presents more than they were this year. We had this great plan to do their bedrooms for Christmas........we put them to bed in our bed and then worked into the wee hours of the night. We switched furniture around and assembled new furniture. The result was that Austin had Alyssa's furniture-----which ultimately we converted to a bunk bed for Aidan and Austin, and Alyssa had a new bed and dresser and new decor. This needed to be done to get a bed ready for Aidan and we thought it would be a fun to do.

Now all we need is Aidan :) This makes me more excited just getting this ready for him.

So in the morning Austin crawls into bed and simply states..............'why do I have a bunk bed" and falls back asleep. Alyssa later comes to our room and says..........'can we get up, I want to check out my room'..............and once she checks it out says...................'oh- nice' ......................and then later opening a few presents ....................'I don't want just blankets and sheets, there is too many cats in my room now (cat sheets which SHE picked out) ........this is what I get for Christmas????..this is it?????...........No real kitties?............No big toys?........This is it????? (don't be feeling sorry for her---she had fun stuff too)

Well we tried. I was envisioning the kids being all excited and checking out the new stuff...........I guess what can I expect when it's boring room stuff-right? We ended the day feeling a little frustrated and sad.

I felt sad because they weren't completely happy. As a parents I'd love to give the world to the kids............................but is giving them that big dream toy really a lesson I want to give them?????............it may have served for immediate gratification for the day............but that's not what Christmas is about-right!! The whole commercialism side of Christmas really gets me this time of year. It brings out selfishness and jealousy of wanting more. Aaarrggghh!! Anyways....

For opening our family gifts we had a lot of fun. You know the typical scenerio............kids fighting about who gets to open a present first......................good thing dad comes up with playing a round of Uno to determine who opens a present. (we've been into Uno lately) That was lots of fun!!!!! You could see the kids scheming on who to lay the draw four or draw twos on.........so they could win. The gifts were like the prizes to the game...............it was great!!!!

Of course we've been thinking about Aidan alot. Sounds like they had Christmas celebrations at the orphanage. There are pictures of them decorating cookies on their web. They took some of the older kids to the Nutcracker........did a pageant at the O.........just sounds like had alot of Christmas festivities. I love how much they do for the kids. The staff at GLA is so incredible. They really give their lives into these kids and we're so thankful for that. Check out their activities. ...http://www.glahaiti.org/toddler_house_blog and also check out the 'life goes on in Haiti" section too.