We are going to Palm Springs to meet up with my side of the fam (grandparents, parents and my little bro Gabe). We were originally going to take ALL the gifts to Palm Springs but realized space is a hot commodity these days in the car so we decided to ONLY take our gifts to the kids and were were going to open up Grandma Jackie's gifts with her last night. This turned out great, they were excited, we rushed them into the shower and told them we had a big surprise for them. When they got downstairs they were stoked...to say the least. Funny and well...frustrating moments of the night: 1. Rian was opening his gift after the girls did their gift exchange and he got SOO excited. It was a little truck from Grandma Jackie and we didn't want him to feel left out and it was HILARIOUS. He was rolling all around, he was ooh'ing and ahh'ing and the FUNNIEST part was that he busted out with "oh sweet" clear as day MULTIPLE times. It was HILARIOUS. That kid. He kills me. 
2. We piled all the kids presents into a seperate pile so they knew where to grab their stuff from. The difference. The younger they got the bigger the presents. So Carina SEEMED to have a smaller pile. Any mom KNOWS where this is going. She gets through them all and although the SAME amount of money was spent it takes more to buy things for Carina at the age that she is at. So she for about 15 minutes had this pouty look on her face and I was starting to get frustrated cause she just seemed so ungrateful. Grandma excused herself (and I was terrified she was hurt...but she went to do personal things) and then Carina looked at me and said...mom I'm sorry. ALL ON HER OWN! So the frustration went to pride when all on her own our 10 year old said she realized that she was being poopy, she was sorry and that it just sucked at first to see that Neya and Rian got Really BIG gifts and hers were small. Then she realized hers cost the same if not more and she was better. It was amazing. We have waited a long time for her to get to this point. So glad it happened at xmas time! 
3. Neya got this cat toy. OMG. It moves, purrs, licks its paw, rolls over and just about acts TOTALLY alive. Kinda crazy. It's so cool that Jackie (grandma) said that her mom (grandma...aka great grandma..billie) even loved it and she hates ANYTHING that has to do with cats. Well Neya opened it she was STOKED, loved it and the kicker. So did Rian. Anyone who has met him knows he has a TOTAL cat thing. Goes crazy for them. Well this was no exception. He was sticking his hands in the box, trying to grab at it and as soon as we took it out he wouldnt put it down. Kissing it, petting it, holding it and Neya was EVEN being nice about him taking over her toy. So funny. Oh how your kids amaze you at certain times. 
The holidays do a lot of things for everyone, some in a spiritual way, some in a rekindling with family way, some in just a total life and appreciation revelation and for me it makes me look at how lucky we are to have one another. To have Rian have made it, to have had Carina to turn me into the mommy I never thought I could be so young, to have Neya to make us realize that patients don't come naturally and to have one another...which means SURE, we aren't perfect, we don't always smile and act cheery to one another, but we love eachother and really that is all that counts. As time goes on I hope my kids do exactly what Carina did this year and realize its not about the size or amount of presents its about the thought, the meaning and the joy of just ripping open presents to have something New. hehe. And I will leave you with a few last pics from the night: 
OH and a video of Rian putting "gas" in his car. Yes it is a juice bottle (empty and NOW cleaned out) but daddy taught him this "trick" in an hour while mommy was at the mall! Yay Daddy!
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