Santa comes early

I was going to attempt to get my post count to 100 for the year, but at my current December pace that is NOT going to happen. Life is slowly returning to normal, with work and new animal shipments no longer dominating every waking moment. The addition of a new keeper and curator have ensured that I get my weekends off. The animals are all settled enough that I am no longer required to go in before or after hours to check on them. Things at work are pretty good.

Gene and the kids are off work/school for the next two weeks. I am not that lucky :) Saturday was my last day off before Christmas so we had decided that we'd have our family Christmas Saturday morning. Santa had no problem coming early and the kids were thrilled. Friday we had a huge ice storm. I decided that the kids and I weren't going to leave the house so we went ahead and opened all our "non-Santa" presents. We spent the entire day playing with Legos and new video games and Kapla blocks (the coolest wooden building blocks EVER.) Oh, and a knock-off version of Bendaroos...

Bendaroos are pieces of string covered in wax that can be molded or shaped. Actually, they are a waxy version of pipe cleaners. Bendaroos are advertised on Nick at every single commercial break and both kids wanted them desperately. Bendaroos are quite possibly the World's Stupidest Toy. Pipe cleaners are about a tenth of the cost and are much more versatile. Whatever, I found a very similar product at Hobby Lobby and it was the hit of the day. Logan spent more time with his wax sticks than I've ever seen him spend on anything "crafty" or that wasn't a vehicle or video game. Both kids spent hours playing with the things so I guess it was ten bucks well spent.

Santa came Friday night, so Saturday morning there was another round of presents. Kaylin suggested leaving Santa some Zingers (my favorite snack cake.) I got up at 2am and put out presents and stuffed stockings and ate Zingers. I then wrote a note from Santa thanking the kids for the Zingers and letting them know Santa hadn't had Zingers since he was a boy and his mom put them in his lunch box for school. Kaylin LOVED the note and immediately hung it in her room. The child REFUSES to stop believing in Santa. At least next year Christmas falls on my day off and Santa won't have to accomodate my schedule.