Welcome to the Toy Shop

I have been home from work for six full days, it has been three days since Christmas, and the kids are finally settling down. Thank goodness. They were killing me!

Having just turned three, this was the first year Leon and Michael really "got" Christmas. And that made it really exciting. They eagerly wrote letters to Santa (and thankfully, after reading Berenstain Bears, were fully happy to limit their lists to around four items each). When Elfie, our Elf of a Shelf, finally decided to grace us with his presence in mid-December, they eagerly helped Ree look for him every morning and (thankfully) laughed hysterically when he forgot to move for three days. (Following Ree's lead, they kept joking, "What was in that eggnog last night?" in reference to his laziness.)

But it also meant they had Christmas energy. Leon spent the entire month in turbo, never sleeping. He was, however, a fairly happy little dude and the fighting with Michael was only a little worse than usual and the tears when I left for work only a little louder and longer than usual. Michael, though, wears his emotions on his sleeve. He has been known to skip up to me and announce, "I'm happy!" He has also greeted me at the front door at the end of the day with his head dropping, his shoulder slumped, his arms hanging and lamented, "It was a SAAAD day." When it came to Christmas, he told me through big tears, "I'm nervous."

At first the poor little guy was nervous Santa wouldn't come. Once Christmas day arrived, we thought for sure our little stressball would be happy again, but he was a big ball of emotions on Christmas Day. It wasn't until I walked into his room on the 26th and he gleefully announced, "Welcome to the toy shop!" that we realized he had been nervous his presents would all just disappear.

Now that he can relax, he is sleeping. And now that he is sleeping, he is a much happier guy. And because he is sleeping, Leon is sleeping too, and just having two sleeping boys is making life so much easier. It really is too bad I have to go back to work in five days and the drama will begin again...