Boy, Did Wii Fool Them!

I know Christmas is been over for quite awhile and I know that many of you already know this story but I have to document this sweet victory because I don't know when it will ever happen again.

We got our kids a Wii and that was pretty much it. That was going to be their Christmas and we hid it. Well this is where my first mistake was. I was lax in my hiding because I thought with all this space no one would find things. They have prooved this theory time and again when they can't find their shoes or socks, or coat, or book or-Ok i guess you get the picture. All these missing things I can find in about 30 seconds if I lift up a blanket or toy or actually walk around the room instead of sitting there waiting for the missing item to jump in my hands and shout Here I am!
Anyway back on topic.
Luke finds it shows Colin-this is where he messed up big. He is still an amatuer in the snooping world. You never tell a 6 yr old anything. The next day Colin walks up-actually it was more of an overdelighted bounce and says, "Mom I know you got us a Wii". I play it cool and say "Why would you think that." He replies "Because Luke showed it to me and he read the box it has W-I-I on it and that spells Wii-he told me." Well OK that's a pretty good reason to think that then. I don't say that instead my mind is racing for something to say and I say something lame like well I don't know what your talking about and then I distract him.

This is where the devious part of my mind was awoken and unleashed with Kevin's help of course. Luke has no idea Colin ratted him out so we left it that way. We make a plan and get some helpers. We have Andy and Corrie(thanks again bytheway) come over and I say hey Kevin can you go get that thing in our closet before they leave I've been holding it for them. Kevin goes and gets it- hands it to Andy and he proceeds to carry it out the door. My kids eyes were huge and full of panic and confusion . They were trying to play it off (but again amatuers) their eyes never left the package. They quickly run around the corner with loud whispers. I hear a muffled "I KNOW!!--I thought it was ours!!! Corrie then thanks us for having the fireman at Kevin's work get it because they were so hard to find(which is true that is how we got it). Corrie already had a Wii and my kids know that so she says for them to hear. Andy's sister Sarah will be so happy you found one.

The next week was hilarious. Luke says mom I need to talk to you. Why did you give them a Wii. I say how do you know it's a wii. He scrambles and says umm I could see through the bag as they left and I thought it was for us. I said Oh well I guess you shouldn't assume anything. Ryan with every Wii commercial moans that it is taunting him because he just knew he had one. A great highlight was when Sarah sends a thank you card and a picture of her playing a Wii. I show them and they slump off in various directions mumbling. Thanks Sarah for that nice touch! Then they all put up an ad for a Wii on the refrigerator circled many times. I just say guys you know those are very expensive and very hard to find around Christmas.

So in the end Victory was ours when they opened the package on Christmas and they were all surprised. Luke said later Dang I really didn't think we were getting one. The bittersweet part is Colin thinks Santa came through for him even though we couldn't-- so we can't have all the glory--I guess that will keep us humble... that is until in later years when we recount this story over and over!

Christmas

Here is a glimpse of our holidays.
Christmas Eve Kevin's family came over and we all sang carols and ate cookies. My parents got in town just in time for the fun.
Christmas day was great we opened presents and then Kevin's family came over and we opened more gifts and had a simple but nice late lunch.
Ben wasn't really into his first Christmas.
My sister and her family came Christmas night. Over there visit we went to Eden Park and the Krohn Conservatory. It was breezy but fun all the same.
I had many more pictures but didn't want anyone to get carpel tunnel from scrolling down for
a million pictures.

New Year's Eve Bash!

I figure better late than never posting our New Year's Eve events. We went to the annual Richard's New Year's Eve Party and that is always a fun time. We eat and then split up in teams and play a series of games. Which I have to mention the team I was on won this year!! We then eat some more. We had to guess how much candy was in the Gingerbread house which is funny because Colin was one of the winner's. I asked him how many he thought and he said 5. I made it 105 and he won. Do you think he was willing to share the candy prize with me since I helped him win. Of course not. He would he said but I got my own candy prize since my team won the other games. Which he was on my same team and got extra candy for that as well but that was besides the point in his mind. Then there is always a pinata which is a highlight for the kids. Last year it was Darth Vader's helmet and this year it was a pink unicorn or horse thing so it's always a surprise.


Kristen really enjoyed this process as well. She was tapping it while Luke had no mercy on the poor thing. With his "skills" he got it busted open a little for it to be finished off by the next couple of hitters.


The chaos began as candy went flying throughout the air and kids scrambling for their share of the loot.

At midnight-which at this party is 10pm. It's really quite brilliant. They set the clocks ahead so at 10 it says midnight and we do the count down and have noise makers, and those pull the string and it explodes things, and the kids run outside to celebrate the "new year". The neighbors who you would think be confused are used to this as this tradition has been going on for years and years now. Most of my kids are oblivious to the fact it is actually earlier. It's a fun time for all! Even Grandma Hottenstein!
There was even a mini dance party going on for a minute!

Thanksgiving...

We had a great Thanksgiving so I thought I would just show some highlights. The Richards' family really knows how to have a Thanksgiving feast. Kevin's family puts nice tablecloths and decorations on the tables with festive glasses and dishes and have--which I feel is the best part-- tons of fabulous homemade food. Kevin was so anxious to get over to his parents--to help cook and organize-- oh no but to recruit players to play Axis and Allies. Which if you are not aware is a game that is like Risk but way more elaborate with ships,planes, tanks, and takes forever to play. It makes Monopoly-which I feel is way too long of a game-seem like Go Fish. Anyway he found some players and they began their attempt at world domination.

The kids made fun turkey cookies.

Aunt Beth demonstrated and oversaw production.






After singing a couple of Thanksgiving songs it was time to eat and enjoy the spread.










Rest (Kevin), Relaxation(Grandma Hottenstein and Aunt Joyce), Digestion(everyone), and Dessert(Kristen) were next! Kristen really loved Grandma Richards homemade fudge!!


So you can see we had a great Thanksgiving and I think I will be full for the next week. Well, we all know that's probably a huge exaggeration. In fact I think some ice cream sounds good about now.

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween went very smooth so I am thrilled with the lack of drama or stress. I had one embarrassment and several annoyances. My embarrassment came when this little kid approaches in a spiderman suit, the problem was they had this really long pretty hair so before I even take in the whole scene carefully I say, "Oh look, it's Spidergirl." OK I then see the boy more closely and realize my mistake. I try to play it off for a minute but you can't play that off without then looking more stupid so I just don't make eye contact hand the kid a large handful of candy and hope I didn't scar him for life. My annoyances this year was not with my family at all but the laziness of some other kids today. I totally understand and back the desire to get as much free candy as you can at any age. As a mother now I just enjoy reaping the benefits of my childrens' labor. I'm not a stickler for you having to be a certain age but could you at least make an attempt at some sort of a costume. I had several pack of 'kids' ,if you call 14-15 yr olds kids, that came up totally in their regular clothes and some didn't even have a bag. One kid had his school backpack opened and one of the girls just opened her purse. One kid is texting on his cell phone the whole time he is holding his bag with the other hand.Come on now really, could you not at least take a sibling or find a little kid like we would do to take out so you weren't conspicuous but could then stick out your own bag on the down low.Thanks by the way to my friends little brother for helping out his sisters' friends for several years. Anyway, if I had any kind of guts I would have refused them candy unless they at least did a trick or something. However, I am the queen of non confrontation so of course I hand each of them candy(I did give them the smallest pieces I had) and then mumble to myself. I'm to chicken if denied they will come back and smash my pumpkin or worse. Next year if that happens I'm going to give those kids an apple or a carrot or something. So oh well at least my kids earned there massive loot the good old fashioned way-- Dressed up and adorable. I am also happy to report there were definitely no half-jobs going on this evening. They each put some major effort in accumulating as much candy as possible. Especially Colin who isn't known for his stamina. Kevin who took them reported that Colin lasted the longest with no complaint as he determinedly slung his pillowcase (quite heavy with sweet goodness by this point) over his shoulder as he marched on with his mission. One more house equals one more piece of candy!