Gifts galore!

As much fun as it is for me to write about my kids, it's even more fun to play with them. And that's made it tough to find time to keep this blog up to date.

For two days, we've been opening gifts and then forcing the children to leave them behind as we rush off to yet another Christmas gathering. This afternoon, they finally had a chance to enjoy their holiday haul. For Sydney, that meant arts and craft time: a little painting, a little stamping and a lot of mixing colors.

AJ finally got to try out his Criss Cross Crash set. There wasn't quite as much crashing as he seems to have been hoping for, but he's fascinated by it, none the less. As luck would have it, the two cars that do the best job staying on the tracks are a race car and a police car, so we've had more than a few police chases in our kitchen over the course of the day. I've lost count of how many times I've heard AJ excitedly shout, "Look it, Mom. Look it!" when he's got more than one car racing at a time.

Other favorites: a "Dora house" (as Sydney excitedly exclaimed when she opened it) and unicorn Pillow Pet. AJ also seems to like the fort, though he uses it as a hide-away in the midst of battles with Dad...

... who has been having way too much fun with AJ's new dart blaster guns.

The Playmobil ghost pirate ship that AJ's been wanting for the last year so far seems to be more work than it was worth. I'm pretty sure I've spent more time assembling it than he's spent playing with it. The ghost pirate clam, on the other hand, saw quite a bit of action, used in conjunction with the Kung Zhu pets, which I have to admit have held AJ's attention far longer than I'd expected. The ghost pirate clam had just swallowed one of the battery-operated rodents right before I snapped the photo.

Sydney's new folding table appears to be the gift that will get the most use. Based on the number of activities it played a part in today, it's probably not going to get folded away very often. So far we've decorated cupcakes, dressed a princess doll, played with a Safari set and ate a real lunch on it.

Maggie seems to like it too. It puts the activities (and food) that much closer to her level.

Lucky for the kids, Jeff has the next few days off, which means they'll have even more time to play with all their fun new treasures.