How to reduce an 11 year old boy to tears of joy

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope it was a good one. We had a terrific Christmas. I've had to adjust over the years to a new sort of Christmas experience than what I was used to as a child, but I enjoy quality time with my husband and children and this was 2 days of good quality time. A few years ago, we started a tradition of going to our local Boomer's and going miniature golfing on Christmas Eve (as long as it's not Sunday and it's not raining at least). Fortunately, the weather was wonderful. A little windy, but still in the upper 60's for both days. The kids had a blast. We told them that whoever won got all the presents, so both Brennan and Tori were super competitive. Luckily for all of them Mom won with a score of 61 - and since I like to share I decided to let them divide up the gifts. Tori came in a close second at 67. Shelby surprised us all and turned out to be quite a good golfer - she beat Brennan. We spent Christmas Eve night together with just our family. We watched "Home Alone" and had Christmas S'mores and hot chocolate. The kids all got new pajamas and were easy to put to bed.

Christmas mornings at our house are interesting in the fact that our kids don't get up at the crack of dawn. They can - they just don't. I woke up at 8 thinking that they were all watching TV and found only Brennan and Scott awake. The girls all appeared a few minutes later and the craziness began. Santa threw us all off this year and wrapped his presents. The little girls got to open theirs first. Kendall asked for and received a race track with cars that crash. Shelby asked for and received a Barbie and a bonus remote control Corvette to go with it. Brennan and Tori had asked for a Wii, but due to the extreme shortage, had been warned that it was a slim chance that it would come. Luckily for all of us Santa came through and we received a Wii. Brennan was so overcome with joy he started shaking and crying. (What a year NOT to pull out the video camera - AFV material for sure!)

Needless to say we've spent the last few days with the Wii - which is really quite fun. Its amazing the things you can do. We enjoy bowling, playing pool and ping pong, air hockey, tennis, boxing, baseball. It is a great family game console.

Scott's mom and dad came over for Christmas brunch as usual. Scott made amazing stuffed french toast (strawberries and cream cheese anyone?) - they were very yummy and I am surprised Dad didn't go into a diabetic coma.

We went over to the Rosenlof's for dinner. Dana & Jeff and all of their kids came up a day early due to Jon having surgery on the 26th. Everyone was there so it was a houseful. We stayed for a while and then came home. We don't really fit in there (stories for private conversations) - so we don't last long - and the kids were missing the Wii. I have a lot of frog-eye salad to eat. So if you feel like having a little, come on over!

See you in the New Year!