Merry Christmas 2012!

It's been a rough last few months of 2012 - hurricane, nor'easter, family drama, holidays, life style changes, sugar withdrawal, on and on. We made it to Christmas! It's a miracle, really. I am so very relieved to get this far. Presents have been opened, inappropriate remarks recorded on video while genuine expressions of gratitude and joy were missed (d'oh!), and the boys are content. Whew! They both got inexpensive tablets this year. I say "inexpensive" in a very droll fashion...as compared with, say, an iPad ($150 is certainly more affordable than $375. Ouch.)  Neither of the boys knew they were getting them. They have asked, pleaded, begged, cajoled and demanded them over the course of the year, but John and I held our ground. We still had NO plans to buy them...then black Friday hit. I bought a Kindle Fire at a very good price, for Max.

As I was wrapping gifts, it occurred to me that even though it was not technically a full blown tablet, Tyler would have a fit if Max got a hand-held device and he didn't (mind you, he has had MANY such devices, primarily for gaming, but I digress.) Panic! Sure he was getting a few pretty pricey video games and a trampoline, but I know my boy. He would fixate on the one thing he DIDN'T get and things would get ugly. So Daddy to the rescue! John ran out, 2 days before Christmas, and bought an Android tablet at BestBuy. He saved Christmas! My hero!

Now - after struggling with a still partly frozen turkey and a too small oven, I thought I would take a few moments to record lessons learned in the hopes we won't make the same mistakes next year.

1. Do not get a turkey larger than 15 lbs. It will NOT fit in the oven properly.
2. Thaw Mr. Turkey in the fridge for 3 days, not 2 - or it will still be a bit frosty.
3. Start wrapping at least a week before Christmas so we can see how many gifts we have for each boy and make any necessary adjustments.
4. Charge up any electronic devices BEFORE wrapping them. Max nearly had a cow waiting for his Kindle to be charged and configured today.
5. Remove all twist ties, wires and other assorted parent proofing from toys before putting gifts under the tree.
6. Do NOT wrap the plain brown shipping boxes even if the gift is oddly shaped. Kids want to see something cool as soon as that paper comes off. Crushing disappointment or confused comments tend to ruin Christmas videos. (I won't be posting those, I don't think.)

That about covers the major points. On the positive side, I highly recommend Kindle's new FreeTime app for kids. I installed it, set up a profile for Max and he has all this age appropriate content in an easy to navigate format on the Kindle Fire. I can even set limits to how much time he plays games or watches videos and leave the book reading unlimited. He can't spend any money without Mommy's help (password protected for new purchases) but so far, he is thrilled with the content that comes with FreeTime. Very cute apps!

OK. Time to see if I can get the turkey neck out of the cavity of our too big bird. It was jammed in there and stuck.