Our 2004 Christmas
Our Christmas this year was divided into 3 separate celebrations--our own family gift exchange on Thursday the 23rd, my family's on Christmas Eve and traveling to Holland to be with Jim's family on Christmas Day. The kids were more into the opening of their presents than they were in previous years. Becca and Abby were both very excited about the presents we gave them, a talking vacuum (given to Becca to help with her fear of the vacuum cleaner) , a Fisher-Price Noah's Ark, and DVDs of Thomas the Tank Engine and Veggie Tales. We deliberately did not go all out on spending for toys as we knew that our parents would give them plenty of toys. The kids loved seeing all their grandparents during the course of the weekend--going sledding for the first time with Grandma Zoetewey, and baking a cake with their Aunt Lisa in her Easy-Bake Oven which she found in their basement, still in good condition and working. Abby and Becca did not want to leave any of their grandparents' homes, and fell asleep in the car each night we drove home.

A Christmas word to the wise: When replacing batteries in toys, do not replace the batteries for all of the toys at once. The kids will want to play with all of the noisy/talking/musical toys ALL AT THE SAME TIME. On Christmas Eve I went to Meijers and decided to stock up on AA batteries as they were having a sale, so I thought this might be a good time to replace batteries in toys where they were dead or dying. Never again.

- posted by Kristen @ 12/27/2004 11:48:00 PM