We are back from our Christmas "vacation," that being 3 days up in Michigan visiting family. There was no room at the inn this year, so we stayed at the Comfort Inn in Plainwell. We left on Christmas morning, just a little while after we got up and did presents ourselves. I made a video of us going downstairs and opening the presents, and captured Missy looking at the pile and declaring 'That proves that Santa's real!' The kids got what I would call an impressive haul, with the big prizes being Missy's swim-to-me puppy, and some other robot pet things (parrot and panda), all of which she has wanted ever since seeing them, and Alex's toolbox and remote control helicopter, plus the Wii Mater's Tall Tales game. Also a big hit were the hand knitted scarves, gloves and hats made by Gramma. Missy's especially; it was patterned after a sock monkey and she loves it. We made the trip up north a bit later on and had another Christmas at Pinkster's. The kids wanted to bring the Wii games, so they could play with their cousins, but they all quickly got bored with it. It was just way too easy, and too simple. Another one of the kids' prizes were $50 gift cards from Gramma and Grampa for Toys R Us, which the whole family went out to spend yesterday. Alex spent the entire thing on Pokemon cards, and Missy struggled to find something she wanted to spend it on. She picked out a Toy Story 3 cheapo plastic guitar for most of the amount, for some reason, but after many tears and much pouting we were able to talk her out of it and into some animals and another robot pet thing (squirrel). Everyone did some more shopping (Gander Mountain, the mall) and went out to dinner together afterwards. This morning we hit the pool at the hotel with the kids, mostly because we promised Missy she could try out her swim to me puppy at some point and it was the last time left. It was freezing but kids don't seem to notice.