Things we learned this Christmas. . .

In no particular order, here are a few bits of wisdom we will remember for future years Christmas.

• Santa shouldn't have the same wrapping paper that Mom & Dad have on their presents at home.  Paige noticed this and commented, "Santa has the same paper that we have at home!"  Mental note that he needs his own role of paper next year.
• Elf on the Shelf costs $29.99 and is worth WAY more than that in behavior modification around the holidays.  He disappeared until next year and managed to move each night.
• Separate the children when sleeping at Gramma's house on Christmas Eve--that way when Paige has to blind us with the bathroom light; she won't wake up Cooper at the crack of dawn--or 6:30am
• Get Christmas cards mailed out before Christmas so I don't have to cross out Christmas and put Happy New Years on them like the last dozen I just did tonight!  We ran out of cards and had to make some more.
• Make sure the Wii remotes are charged; as that sucker will be on every night after Christmas since Cowboy feels the urge to master the new games he got.
• Everyone in the world is on the internet on Christmas morning; and Skyping didn't work as well as we hoped.
• Next year--start the prep earlier so this tired out Mom isn't as frazzled as she was this year!  Everything went very well and we had a great time seeing our families; but there was a lot of last minute things going on that I can definitely avoid in the future.  I think I'll aim to have my shopping done by Thanksgiving!

Merry Christmas, and here is hoping by New Year's that the presents, food, etc. all clean themselves up and find a home.