And that's the Christmas story Charlie Brown . . .

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Santa - wrapped or unwrapped?

Well, this will be our first Christmas with children who are old enough to really understand the holiday. I've been reading the Christmas story to Maddy and she seems to understand some of it. But, you can't ignore the Santa Claus part of Christmas.

Hubby and I had a discussion last week about how we would handle "Santa Claus". When I was a young girl, Santa brought the majority of the gifts. Sure, there were one or two wrapped presents from my parents, but Christmas morning usually consisted of unwrapped presents from Santa. I can remember the excitement of running down the stairs to find all of my presents under the tree - all laid out where I could see each and every one. So, last night, I asked my mother why she decided that Santa's gifts were unwrapped and why most of the gifts came from Santa and not from her. She said that Santa's gifts were those that usually required some assembly and were very big and bulky, thus making them hard to wrap. She told me that when I was a real young girl, like Maddy and Baby Lulu, that all presents were wrapped, 'cause you know, at the age of two, unwrapping the present is usually better than the present itself. She explained that as I got older, it just became easier (with 3 kids), not to wrap EVERYTHING.

So, what do you all think? Should Santa's gifts be wrapped or unwrapped? And should the majority of the gifts come from "Santa" or from Mommy and Daddy? Feel free to leave your suggestions in my comments - I'd love to hear how everyone else is doing it. And also, look over there in my sidebar and vote, please.

We are alive!

Well, I'm happy to report that we are all alive and on the road to recovery . . . hopefully. The girls still have the runny nose, but both seem to be in really good spirits. So, in order to keep my sanity (what's left of it after having two children), I'm off to our neighbor's house our playgroup.

Two sick girls = one exhausted Mama!

Well, both girls are sick. Let me just run down the list of things I've accomplished today -- let me warn you, my list is not for the faint at heart or those with a weak stomach.

1) I've sucked so much snot out of Maddy's nose I could fill an 8 oz jar. Eeww!
2) Baby Lulu is teething - getting molars to be exact --- I won't even tell you how many poopy diapers I've changed. I got in the shower tonight and scrubbed my skin raw!
3) I've repeated "drink your juice" more times than I'll hear Merry Christmas this holiday season.
4) I held one baby, then the next, oh and then back to the other who made the other one jealous and ended up with all 3 of us in the rocking chair . . . rocking and rocking and more rocking. Did I mention that rocking makes me nauseous!
5) Oh and did I mention that I've been blowing my own nose too? Yep, I'm sick.

Two sick babies + one sick Mama - Daddy = One exhausted, sick Mama!

Go Buckeyes!

Congrats to the classiest coach in the U.S. - Jim Tressel. The Ohio State Buckeyes are headed to the BCS National Championship in New Orleans, LA.