AND the FINAL days of Christmas were...

OKOK I guess I can be thankful I have so many good friends who actually read this!  THANK you.

I do have a journal of posts I wanna make, and I am going to try to organize how I do this so maybe it becomes much more steady!! 

With out further adoo, the final days of Christmas were............a shock.  And the BIGGEST blessing of all!!

With day 10 we got a note saying that dinner was coming the next night at 6...
There was only one problem with this.  we were going on the Polar Express and weren't going to be home.  So, it was so sweet, I left a note, as did Alia, saying how much she loved our named "secret Santa" and I left a cooler asking for it to be put there.  I also had mentioned we were flying out Christmas Eve.

When we got home and there was nothing there I wasn't sure what to think.  Dinner was meant for the 24?  Or they just didn't do anything.  I was stumped.

Either way, we were getting ready for bed...I had a TON to do before leaving at 8am the next morning for our flight.  The night was already looking so short for me, as it was 8pm. 

All of a sudden I heard a knock at the door.  Something we had become accustomed to lately...so I sharply told Alia and Alyssa that NO it was just our secret people and to not go look and not answer it!  I mean it!!  But Alia in a pleading tone says "No mommy it's Santa."  I responded with "yes Alia I know they have been doing this every night"

Alia throws back "NO MOMMY, it REALLY is SANTA!!!!!"

Brandon gets up from his chair and sure enough, there was SANTA at our door.  And more so, he was waiting to come in!!  So we let him in and the girls can barely contain their shrieks of excitement. 

Behind Santa, was our piping hot Pizzas.  Which proved to be a GREAT midnight snack for us that night.

Now for the best gift of all...no it wasn't the black garbage bag full of presents just waiting for us to open them....it was how Santa talked to the girls.  He KNEW Alia was in Jazz dance, and Alyssa gymnastics, and even KK was potty training...and when he mentioned it to her, she gave him full detail of how she poops in the potty and when she does she wipes the front and mommy wipes her butt and so on and so on.  Sliiiightly embarrassing!  Anyhow, when he asked Alia about her dancing, he sealed a deal.  And a very important one at that!  One that was slowly unraveling at our household.  She believed, but with skepticism since some of the kids in her class no longer believe.  But after this, that PURE and SWEET innocence that is a child and their faith.  It was ALL hers again.  And for that I will be FOREVER thankful.  If we didn't get a single one of the things we were blessed with through this journey, that would have been enough!!!


But....................we did get presents....12 for the TWELVE days...and it was TONS of fun opening them there under our tree with the girls, some that night and the rest that morning before we left. 

All from our Secret Santa

It truly was, for me, like Santa came. 

The girls got wonderful gifts, ballerina princesses, crowns, crafts, and MY favorite for Brandon and I (maybe it was the family) was Twister.  It is a game we actually don't have, and well, we played it the week we came back and Brandon and I laughed and connected like we haven't since long before the strokes. 

It was a BLAST!  And little giggling in the background was the perfect music!