Secrets

Such a flurry of secret activity going on behind doors! Presents are being made, sewn, knitted, glued, baked, printed and wrapped in the darkest corners of the house. It's a whole new concept to the twins. They thought Christmas was about GETTING presents. In this house the emphasis, at least at this point of the game, is about Giving. The girls have helped them to create things to put under the tree for every member of the family.

I kind of miss our "Buy Nothing Christmas" logo of last year. I really don't like shopping very much under duress. Last year everybody made everything. What a blast. What a lot of creativity!!! But alas, it simply wasn't possible this year - for me, at least. Some people, like Brianna and Christina, have the time and energy to make everything from scratch.

We can't say that keeping secrets is the twin's specialty, but they are learning. It's harder for Missy. She simply must tell somebody.  She regularly says stuff like, "I make a prize for you. Brianna Grace help me. Shhhh not talk about it."

A huge package came from UPS addressed to me. It was a big mystery to all of us. Finally figured out that it was a gift for Missy from some charity program for foster kids. It's a pretty impressive. The big girls and I were exclaiming over it and all, but being really hush-hush. After Missy went downstairs  Buster came out and asked, "Is that a doll house for Missy?"

How did he figure that out? I put on my best stern face and said, "If you are going to talk like that you'll just have to go to bed and stay there until after Christmas!"

He laughed.

So now we are trying to figure out how he knew. Is it because the place it came from sounds like "doll house" or did someone speak too loudly?

or

did he hear me spell it and put the letters together?

The girls are like nah! 

I'm like, well, maybe he's actually really, really smart and he's just been wanting us all to think he's not. Whatever, it's a good thing Christmas is almost here, but I do hope another package arrives with the man in brown because I can't match that last gift!

Actually, we have decided that too many presents all at once would be overwhelming, overstimulating and a recipe for some behavior we'd like to avoid, so, starting Wednesday we are going to open up one package a day each.