Christmas Past Or... My kids are sneakier than Your kids!

I was thinking of many Christmases from my past and thought I'd share a few with you - so to kick of SITS-mas (what's that you say?  Umm, just click it and you'll see... you'll want to join in the fun because EVERYONE wants a Target Gift Card right????  I was going to post a cute "card" for the holiday - but my printer/card reader hates me) Here's the first installment of Christmas Past...

So, to set the scene for you - think back just a few years to when some of the coolest gifts for young boys were the books Pirateology, Wizardology, Egyptology... you know those?  Okay, so maybe they weren't "COOL" in the PSP and GameBoy sense of the word - but my boys really thought they were something else and they WANTED them!

Luckily, they have a kind and generous Aunt who saw their desire and supplied exactly what was wanted.  They arrived a few weeks before Christmas and were wrapped and put under the tree.  My boys know that if I catch them peeking I will go Postal on their little sweet souls and trust me... I was a really accomplished peeker so I know all the tricks.  Or, I thought I knew all the tricks!

My kids have invented new tricks!  I came out to the living room one quiet evening to read a book and find them coloring.  Coloring?  Umm, guys, did you forget you normally don't "color" - so my radar goes off and I check out one of the papers they were "coloring"... yep - Crayon Rubbings - which have shown the book titles clear as day for the kids to read - Christmas Surprises out the window and I just about want to tear them limb from limb...

Well, sorta - first I had to get over that intense motherly pride that my kids were so dang clever... and then I had to hide my jealousy over the fact that I hadn't thought of doing the same thing 30 years earlier... and THEN I could beat their little bums.

(Note:  no children, animals, or even adults were harmed in the actual version of this story)

Oh - and thanks aunt Z - the kids loved the books... maybe your thank you card got lost in the mail?

and lest you believe that two can't play at this game - I wrapped up a few more gifts soon after... but first I took the puffy paint and wrote nasty little notes to my children regarding their wicked and ingenious behavior - and wrapped it up with the gifts...  they got the point :)  We have had to be VERY good about gift wrapping ever since!

any "tricks of the trade" to share?  

(and for those of you blippin' through the SITSmas craziness... Lynn is next)