Naughty or Nice.

Christmas was so fun this year.

Jackson was a blast.

In a naughty sort of way.

He could not leave the Christmas decorations alone on the tree or anywhere else in the house.

I found the wise men hanging out in his castle in his room a few times.

And we could have used the tree as a growth measuring stick.

There were no decorations within his grasp.  Our younger parenting selves probably would have worried about teaching him not to touch the tree.  The older and wiser parents that we are now just made sure all the ornaments were not breakable.  And we smiled knowing that it is not often that a home gets to have a  half-decorated tree for Christmas.

I had such high hopes for my organization skills this Christmas.

Organization doesn't come naturally to me but I really want to be organized.  It's a terrible catch 22.

I have been doing so much better lately.  Mostly because of my new cyber friend the Fly Lady.  I don't think I have ever written about my recent discovery of the Fly Lady.

It is possible that the Fly Lady and her organization method may very well change my life.

This year, with the dear Fly Lady's guidance, I was determined to have everything completely done for Christmas by the first of December.  I was sure that this would be the year I would not have to wrap a single gift on Christmas Eve. I was totally planning on spending the day playing in the snow and watching movies while drinking hot chocolate.

If you are one of my sisters stop laughing.  I was seriously optomistic...

I did have most of the shopping done by my self-imposed deadline.  I had it completely done until some mean-hearted Grinch stole my purse at Wal-Mart.  Of course I had a couple of important presents in my purse. And cash.  I never carry cash...

Anyway, a couple of stops on Christmas Eve fixed the present problem.  But then I had to wrap.  I decided that next year I am going to have some boxes and bags and anything not wrapped by Christmas Eve gets a bag.

The kids favorite activity this time of the year is our annual shopping day.  The kids all trade names and we go to the mall where they pick out each other's presents.  It's a lot of fun.

Jenna is the official gift wrapper.  She's so cute.

She would not rest until every purchased present was wrapped with bows and under the tree.  She said to me, "Mom I want to have the red wrapping paper with the blue ribbon for my present.  Last year I had the gold paper but this year I want red."  

Austin employed his computer savvy-ness this year and he went in every morning and opened my computer browser pages to the gifts that he wanted.  We bought all his presents by the week after Thanksgiving so I just sat back and watched him sweat thinking  that I missed all the awesome cyber sales.

We are enjoying the giant snow storm that rolled  in today and we love all the time off from work and school.

We hope everyone is safe and happy!