Three Kids and a Dog: Merry Christmas!

Have you recovered? I don't think I have yet! We are still putting away toys and clothes while reorganizing closets and bookcases to accommodate all of the Christmas presents! So much stuff! Our kids are so incredibly lucky to get so many gifts from our families but it's so much. Seriously, they have three Christmases at least!

Christmas morning Austen and Peyton were up early. Hailey wasn't so in tune to the fact that she was getting presents this year so she was much more into watching her morning Paw Patrol cartoon than going to check out the presents. We held Austen and Peyton off for as long as possible and then we dove in. Soon thereafter, I noticed that Peyton's pile of presents was really small in comparison to her siblings. I whispered to Tom, I don't think that's all of Peyton's presents. We must have forgotten a whole tub of presents in our hiding spot just for her since we separated them according to each kid. It just so happened to be that all of those presents were from Santa. Peyton had in fact counted the presents for each of them and did say Austen had more than her but she said this matter of factly so she knew something was up with her presents. Being our challenging child, I thought it was a bit humorous that we had forgotten only her Santa presents so I thought it would be a good opportunity to teach her a little lesson since we needed an explanation for why her presents weren't here. I then told her that Santa had not delivered any presents to her that Christmas so that must've meant she had not worked hard enough at being good. I wasn't sure how she would react but she took it on the chin and didn't say much about it as she watched Austen open his presents and Hailey. In fact, she was so good about not getting presents from Santa that it briefly crossed my mind that she was really growing up. She did have still quite a few presents from Tom and I but not many toys in that bunch. Anyway, I was so impressed that I couldn't bear to watch her any longer and announced that I heard my phone in the other room. I came back with a tub full of her presents and told her that the elves had called and Santa wanted her to have these presents this year if she agreed to be good for the whole next year. She quickly nodded. Tom and I told her how proud we were of her and how she handled the whole situation. Maybe 6 is going to be a good year for her! Finally!