First Wave of Presents

So we got the first box of gifts yesterday from my grandmother. My Nana always send gifts that can either be great or you wonder what she was smoking when she made or bought the item, we love her anyways though. When I was younger it was kind of a game when we got the gifts from Nana, would it be good or would it be nutty. If it is soft, like she knitted something, it could be a crap shoot. She has made some of the most beautiful quilts I have ever seen, and then one year she sent us (my brother, sister and me) "booties" that she knitted....we were all teenagers at the time, not really into wearing booties. So we got those under the tree and of course Jamie wants to open just one, this will be a long wait for him this year. Last night Pat's parents came to visit. They brought the box of gifts for the kids, which are now under the tree, and it will take a lot of control for them not to rip into them for a week. I must say I love the look of a Christmas tree with gifts underneath it, to me there is nothing sadder than the look of the tree after all the gifts are gone.
I have the gifts for the kids all wrapped and ready upstairs, guess I could bring those down as well. Santa doesn't wrap the gifts he leaves the kids, and he only leaves our one gift, so everything that we have wrapped is from Pat and me. Pat's grandmother sent us a gift card to Barnes and Noble, we may go get books or CDs for the kids and wrap them and have the gifts be from his grandmother. Sometimes it can be harder to take three kids to the store with a gift card, just easier if I go get things.
Thigns are coming together for Kiera's tea party, she is having a Giving Tea this weekend. Each year we clean out her closet, along with Jamie's, and get rid of toys they no longer play with in order to make room for new stuff from Christmas. So this year she is having a tea party where her friends can bring a toy they no longer play with and we will take the items to the UNC Children's Hospital for them to have in their play room. Just from my kids closets we have a large bucket full of stuff. I think this may be something we try to do each year, hopefully in time my kids will realize it is nice to give stuff away to other kids, this year it was rough to have to go through stuff, but I am proud of them for letting go of some things.
I am sooooooo ready for the Christmas break, it will be nice to have the time where we don't have to rush off to school and I don't have to rush around in the morning trying to get everything done in the three hour window I am kid free. I am looking forward to when Jamie is in school and I have more time, granted I think I may need a job or I may go nutty!