Sloppy Santa

This year we can get away with slacker Santa practices. Next year probably won’t be so forgiving. I have worked the past few months to store all presents out of Leif’s view. Leif is getting a number of GeoTrax additions for Christmas from Santa. AB and I decided to minimize the number of presents he had to open by setting these out for him unwrapped, when we open gifts. Therefore, unlike his other gifts, they were unwrapped and in a box in the guest room. (The gifts from mommy and daddy are wrapped, in a box in our closet.) This also jives with the practice when I was growing up, Santa never wrapped our presents.

This morning I was getting ready in the bathroom, Leif was watching Polar (Bear) Express for the 7329th time, or (once again) so I thought. AB had just gotten out of the shower. Suddenly Leif came running in squealing at the top of his lungs, “MOMMY LOOK!! A TRAIN!!” and in his hands he held one of the GeoTrax parts to be from Santa.

He was SO excited! I couldn’t help but be filled with joy at seeing the excitement in his eyes. Too bad it wasn’t when we PLANNED on doing our Christmas exchange. Thankfully Teddy Grahams still work as an effective distraction. The train is back in the guest room in the box it was being stored in awaiting Santa’s arrival this evening.

Travel update: We are flying into Denver tomorrow. The airport is open and we are checked in for our departure. Also I was relieved to see that the same flight we will be on tomorrow, has today left Seattle and is scheduled for an on time arrival in just a few minutes. Cautious optimism. At this point my biggest concern is with getting our rental car. We have reservations, however it is impossible to get guarantees and with people leaving the airport and driving instead of waiting for flights, I fear we could lose out on our car. But there are other options we can exercise if necessary! I am just really looking forward to finding myself at my mom’s house surrounded by snow with nowhere to go!