And All Through the House...

There was a lot of activity at our house on Christmas Eve.  After we acted out the First Christmas and sang some Christmas carols, everyone got to open their gifts  We lined up all the grandkidlets and gave them each a gift.  It was super cute, don't you agree?

Yes, those things J is holding ARE handcuffs.  Let me explain.  We have an old toy box full of old toys on the main floor.  For some reason, the boys love to rummage through all the old, mismatched stuff rather than go upstairs to the playroom.  One time while Hubby and I were away, J and his family and friends used our house to watch a BYU game.  J found an old set of toy handcuffs and put them on only to discover that they really DID need a key to unlock.  What followed was a rather interested effort to get those handcuffs off!  In the process the handcuffs were, shall we say, destroyed.  When I came across these toy handcuffs WITH a key, I couldn't resist!  I'm anxious to find out what they do with them!

Camo pants for new Baby M.

Each year for the past 8 years, I have gathered up pictures and stories about the year from each of the kids.  The first book had about 50 pictures at most.  The Eighth Book of Anderson had far more than that and took up 1.1 GB of space!  It took two hours to upload it to the printer.

The first page was titled "Where's the LEAHAWA?"  LEAHAWA is an acronym for the first letters of the last name of each of the families.  There were 48 questions and I told each family that the first one to locate all of them got $20.  I was amazed at the effort to win the money!  It was fun for me to watch and guaranteed that they looked at every page while I enjoyed it.

In the end, I gave each family a $20 bill.  J and M's families combined to get done first (to the chants of "cheaters!" by the rest) but missed one.  Then S and J were disqualified, leaving B who says that he won.  I believe this will be debated for the eternities!