The 12th Day of Christmas!

The Secret Santas remain a secret. They certainly gave us a thrill, and we thank them for their sneakiness and kind deeds they've done for us.

Today brought treats, including Fruitcake Cookies, and a doll for Luci--how on Earth did our Secret Santa know that Sleeping Beauty is on Luci's wish list? This is a "baby princess" doll.

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The boys helped Santa out by putting together a kitchen set for Luci. Wow! Good thing they started this afternoon instead of waiting until Luci fell asleep tonight. It took 3 hours to put together!!
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Luci made a special phone call to Santa tonight. It's been a yearly event since Bryan was about 3 years old. This year, JT thinks I am just dialing Papa's number.
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Did you follow Santa's journey on NORAD's Santa Tracker? Here is Santa going through China:

Maybe Santa should reconsider his gift list...

He's bringing us one of these. Here's the story: Doctors Warn: Wii puts 10 people in hospital each week

Up to ten people a week are being hospitalized with injuries caused by playing Nintendo Wii games, prompting doctors in Britain to issue warnings of the dangers associated with the video game system.

"There has been a 100 percent increase in patients complaining of Wii-itis," Dr. Dev Mukerjee of Broomfield Hospital, Essex, told The Sun newspaper.

...

Another common injury is dubbed Wii-knee, blamed on the bending of the knee from the Wii-Fit game. This involves a special platform and a series of movements ranging from yoga to strength-training moves.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas....

A calendar and address book (I need organization desperately! Thank you!), a magnet (Max Lucado's saying on it--"If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it!") and a panda bear, which Luci quickly appropriated for herself. Thank you, S.S.!!

And this just for fun, from three years ago...Luci's first Christmas with us. She still feels the same way about Santa Claus! The best part of this picture is Santa. Look at his expression!

Secret Santa Continued...

On the Second Day of Christmas, my true friend gave to me (uh, us!) a Cranium game! This is so fun. Thank you, S.S. Not just for the game, but for the friendly way Bryan and JT played together...it's been a while since they've gotten along so well. Whomever you are (and I suspect you are more than one person), you certainly have brightened our days.The Fourth Day of Christmas said, "Do not open until Dec 16th!" Since that's tomorrow, we used our rusty logic to justify opening the Third Day of Christmas, too--which is a big, wonderful jar of cocoa mix (and it's very good, too! Must have the recipe, S.S.!) and 4 cute, cute Christmas mugs. The cocoa went very well with game #2 of Cranium. Luci was up from her nap, so she teamed up with Bryan. (They won, the stinkers. In the first game, it was me against both boys, and I won!) Luci has chocolate milk in her cup instead, she can't take the heat. We used up the last of our homemade marshmallows, so I'm up late tonight making some more (did you know that store bought ones have blue dye in them?!) so we can have them with cocoa in the morning.

This photo is just for fun. Luci is "pulling a JT." When JT was 4, he snuck all the candy out of his Advent calendar when I wasn't looking. Today Luci ate all but three of the remaining candies in her calendar. You can't see it very well here, but she has chocolate all over her face. I love how her eyes look--like little moons.

We are starting the First Day of Christmas puzzle tomorrow (a gorgeous manger scene).

I Am Santa!

Bubble bath time! Luci got all soaped up and told me, "I am Santa. What do you want for Christmas?" It's gotten so fun with Luci--you can hold real conversations with her about many subjects. Tonight we got a Candy Land game (on super sale at Walmart). Luci was so excited until she opened it up and discovered, "There's no candy in there!"

Hey to the Englishes in American Samoa! John is really looking forward to next month's mission trip to the Solomon Islands with Randy. We are saving up for Bryan to go with you all on a trip in 2009. (I get so tickled at all the red dots on the map--thanks for adding the South Pacific!)

For the Grandparents

Dear Nana and Papa,

Dear Grandpa and Grand-Je,

(First of all, I tried and tried to get these videos directly on the blog. I'm sorry it didn't work out. If you want to see them, just click on the highlighted links.)

I thought you'd like to see Luci in action. We had a Christmas party at church last night. The 2-4 year olds got to get up in front of everyone and sing 3 songs. Here are parts of two of them. The first video just shows Luci being cute. Look for her smile at the end. Oh yeah, Bonnie is the one who cries. Luci calls her "Bunny."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mlon_fc5RLU

This video shows Luci actually singing, or trying to. Last year she wouldn't even get up on stage, so this was pretty fun for John and me to witness. Bryan and JT got a kick out of it, too. Watch for Parker, standing behind Luci--he's the one with the reindeer antlers.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=idvRj2y0n0Q

Santa showed up, and Luci ran through a pretty big crowd to get to him first. What a change from just 3 weeks ago! After the party was over, Luci ran back up to Santa and he carried Luci to John. We were so astonished at Luci's reaction.

I Forgot This One!

When we left Santa the other day, Luci decided she really, really liked him. A lot. So when we walked to the Sears entrance, she saw Santa for the last time and shouted, "'Bye Santa!" over and over until he heard her and turned around and waved. This was my favorite photo from that visit.