Playing Santa is always so much fun.  Especially when you can set up animal scenes like this one with the kid's new toys.  When animals attack?

As you can see, X-Mas was a little excessive this year.  I got spoiled, Drew got spoiled and the kids got spoiled.  That's how it's supposed to go though, right?

Stockings chock full of goodies and scrapbook albums that I made using pictures from throughout the year were waiting by their chairs and would be the first things they would see in the morning.

And then there were the teepees...  I just couldn't help myself and HAD to buy them.  They LOVE making forts and playing in their play tent.  I KNEW the teepees would be a hit!

Of course the kids woke up bright and early on Sunday morning and immediately wanted to see if Santa had been there.  Of course we couldn't make it THAT easy for them.  We got them some juice...and we made them watch a little TV in our bedroom...and Drew had to wake up his parents and get them upstairs...

They knew we were messing with them, but they played along!

I made them line up at the door for a pic and their eyes kept wandering down the hall...straining to see what was out there... 

But the deal was that they could NOT go see Santa's treats until they gave me their best smiles.  They delivered and after a '1-2-3-GO!' from Mommy, they were off!

The funniest part about this pic is that they both RAN for their stockings, grabbed the stuffies off the top and turned to show them to me at the exact same time!  This was NOT planned!

Little Man actually looked little carrying his stocking around.  That was one heavy sock!

Both of my kids LOVE chapstick, so Smurfette chapstick was quite a treat!

This was probably one of the best shots of the day though...  Who would have thought a plastic dolphin could put a smile that big on his face?

Then it was time to look at the albums...

Lil was so careful with the book...turning each page very slowly...

She LOVED that the book was all about HER and she had a HUGE smile on her face when she saw all of the pictures!

Will thought the book was cool...but didn't seem to mind looking at it upside down...so maybe that means he wasn't as interested as I thought he was?

This was his smile to appease his mother.  I swear he now knows when I really want something and then just does whatever he has to to make me stop so that he can go on about his merry way.  In this pic it's like he knew I wanted him to be excited about the album, so he gave me his 'OMG-this-is-TOO-COOL!' look!  Thanks sweetie...

My next post will cover the whirlwind of presents we encountered when we went downstairs.  I honestly didn't think we had gone TOO crazy this year, but with all of the presents sent by friends and family...plus all of the stuff we bought...as well as the 'Santa' gifts...yikes!