Phew!! Christmas Day has come and gone. I'm in the dumps today. The week after Christmas always is a bummer for me. I love Christmastime - and took a bit more time for some fun stuff this year and enjoyed it - but it still went by way too fast for me. How can almost an entire month *NOT* be long enough? For me, it isn't!

I was amazed at the toys this year. Everything is interactive and 'high tech'. For example, my son received an Elmo TMX from a friend (who went to Target every morning for a month, bless her heart). He likes this Elmo a lot, but I think Bill and I like it more. I have played with it as much as Owen has! It is so cute! You cannot help but laugh at Elmo, rolling on the floor, laughing. Laughter is infectious and this toy proves it. If you have a toddler in your life, and you can get your hands on one of these, I highly recommend it. By the way, I happened across one of these little guys about a week after my friend got Elmo for my son, bought it, and put it in the Toys for Tots bin (still wrapped in the bag so no one could see what it was) at our local market. I was thrilled to put a toy going for $100+ on Ebay into the Toys for Tots collection bin! LOL


My daughter, Maya, received an awesome toy. It is a four foot tall interactive pony named Butterscotch. This is one of the FurrReal pets - which my daughter and nieces love - and is absolutely amazing. It snorts, whinies, blinks, eats a carrot, and Maya can climb on her back and ride her. And, she is just beautiful! She is truly like an almost for real stuffed animal. Maya is *in love* with Butterscotch and squealed with delight when she saw Butterscotch sitting under the Christmas tree! It was such a sweet moment to watch. Maya 's eyes lit up and she flew to Butterscotch and climbed up on her back - hugging and petting her the whole time. I loved it!! I wish we could do this every single day - except that the kids would be spoiled beyond repair, we would run out of things to buy and we would run out of money to buy stuff with. LOL

Can any of you with little girls explain the fascination little girls have with horses? I am an Aunt of four little girls - all of which have gone through a horse phase - and the mother of one who is currently in the throes of horse mania. We have two real horses by the way, Cowboy and Winterhawk, and Maya loves them as well. She draws them, reads books about them, wears them on her shirts, and is generally obsessed by them. It is a universal fascination with little girls by my obervation and I was just wondering if any others out there have observed the same.

So, in the end, it was a great Christmas and I am sad that it is over. We had such a good time getting ready for it and watching the kids discover all of their gifts under the tree. Our family party, in which the kids went sledding and we all ate way too much, was also a lot of fun. The kids all enjoyed playing with one another and sharing all of their toys. And, yes, they all shared and played together. There was not one argument among the 6 of them. It was bliss!!

The one good thing I can say about the end of Christmas is now I can put away the kids Christmas CDs. I am sick to death of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells! I can definatley wait for a whole year until I hear those tunes again. I balanced things out a bit for myself by purchasing and enjoying the Celtic Woman Christmas CD. It is wonderful and I played in a lot. And....it has a wonderful rendition of the Wexford Carol on it!

Now it is time for me to take out the 10 bags of paper and boxes and think about getting the tree and decorations down and stored. I am looking forward to 2007. I have a few things I want to accomplish this coming year and am anxious to get started! Hope your Christmas was as full and blessed as our was!