Okay, so this morning started with my niece crawling into bed with me and sleeping for a while. Then she woke up with a start and asked me if Santa had been here. So we went to investigate. And indeed, he'd been here. The cookies and milk were mostly gone and the apple had one big reindeer bite out of it. Our next course of action was run all over the house and let everyone know.

First were grandma and grandpa in the basement who were woken with joyful glee of, "Santa was here!! Santa was here!!"

Next was upstairs to wake her brother and parents. My nephew, who is normally quite slow to wake, was disoriented and crawled to the end of the bed saying drowsily and longingly, "Santa... Santa..." How adorable.

We opened our stocking and presents from Santa first. Then we tackled the rest of the gigantor mound of gifts under the tree. The playing with new toys ensued with much joy including karoake and dance competition for the Gamecube with dance pad. Heh. I might have to get me one of those. It was a lot of fun. We also played with Hotwheels, made spin art, knitted a collar scarf for the dog, played Clue Jr. and a nifty game where a pirate steals your coin.

Then there was the food. Lasagna for lunch followed by a feast of turkey dinner prepared by my sister-in-law. Most of the preparations happened while the kids and I were at the park playing soccer and swinging high to the heavens. They got to ride their bikes today and there is almost no snow in Calgary and it was above zero. I didn't even pack my winter coat.

In the midst of all this, I managed a 3 hour nap which gave me energy for the rest of the day.

Now we're off to watch a movie, eat popcorn, and then off to bed. We have a big shopping day ahead of us.