A little Christmas chaos

Merry Christmas from the Clayberg gang! What a wonderful holiday we have had so far. After MUCH debate due to the icy and snowy weather, we spent Christmas Eve in Webster City with my family. It was a day full of fun in which many new memories were made. When you have four boys leading the way, it's bound to be entertaining!


All four boys were thrilled when we finished eating and could open gifts. The highlight for all four of them was the spark scooters they received from Papa and Grandma Di. They spent a good part of the afternoon in the unfinished part of the basement "scooting" around and giggling! The evening was capped off with a candlelight church service in which we celebrated the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. Earlier in the day Carter had told me that we had better be going to a church tonight that has candles to hold while we sing Silent Night. I'm so thankful that he recognizes that as one of our traditions of Christmas and wasn't solely focused on the presents - even though I'm sure those were on the forefront of his mind! After the service, we skated back home on icy and snowy roads wishing we had Rudolph to lead the way.

The boys were exhausted when we got home. They made sure their Santa cookies and reindeer food were in place and hunkered right down into bed, which was helpful to Aaron and I as we scampered around finishing up our last minute Christmas duties.


Since the boys were still up in the air on their Santa beliefs and had seen the list of gifts I had purchased, we (or as Aaron will say, I) had some extra holiday fun up our sleeves. Typically, the Santa gifts are on the kitchen table for the boys first thing when they wake up Christmas morning and all their presents are under the tree. However, this year there was only a letter from Santa describing the boys' behavior through the year and their gifts to each other under the tree upstairs, along with a few supposed gifts to the cats (which were actually their old toys wrapped up with notes typed from me that said, "I guess you were on the naughty list this year. Maybe next year you won't look at the list!")

Needless to say, Austin and Carter weren't nearly as thrilled with my Christmas trickery as I was! When they came out to the kitchen table, their chins just dropped. The cookies had been eaten, and the reindeer food and milk were gone. They saw the envelope but were NOT happy campers. They quickly asked if they could open their gifts from each other after reading the letter from Santa. Notice the looks on their faces.



















They opened those half-heartedly and the mood quickly went downhill when they realized there were no other gifts for them. I told them maybe they should open the "cat gifts" and see what happened. The look on Austin and Carter's faces when they opened the first ones and realized it was their own toys and read the notes from me were ones of devastation. (They made me promise not to post any of those pictures! Actually they told me NOT to blog about this at all, but you can see I didn't listen to that!) I almost gave in right then and there. However, I trudged on reluctantly as my heart was actually breaking. Austin made it one more gift before collapsing in tears and headed into his room. Carter made it two more before the crocodile tears started rolling down. UGH! I was really hoping they would simply call my bluff! Not a chance. Now I had to eat humble pie and go ask them if they thought I would really not get them anything for Christmas. Both of them responded with an emphatic YES!

There was another envelope on the tree upstairs that told them their gifts might be located under another tree. With tear stained faces they reluctantly opened the envelope, and Austin mistakenly thought it meant I had given their gifts to another family. Thankfully Carter realized it meant our other tree downstairs and moods suddenly brightened as they ran downstairs! They were so excited that Austin actually wiped out and fell down the last four stairs. Yes, mother-of-the-year award here I come! Needless to say, they found a Santa gift along with far too many others and Carter shouted, "It's a Christmas miracle!"















All's well in the Clayberg household again. Hopefully Austin and Carter have forgiven me. It's been a memorable Christmas so far. We are looking forward to continuing making Christmas memories with Aaron's family tomorrow in Webster City.