Christmas Is Officially Over: Epiphany!

Mike was born in Panama, where his Russian-born mother and Irish father met and lived for several years. While there, they adopted the wonderful Spanish and Latin-American tradition of setting their shoes under the Christmas tree on Epiphany eve, for the three kings to leave a gift. We have carried on this tradition in our family, and it's a fitting way to draw Christmas to a close.

Kieran, who doesn't believe in Santa any longer, informed me of the implausibility of the three kings coming to life again after so many years and delivering gifts to his shoes. However, he is going along with the tradition just to humor us! :) Last night the three kings were scurrying around making the necessary preparations! This year everyone got a few extra presents because we had another "king" visiting!

Kieran, poor lad, has to get up every morning at 6:30 to catch his 7:15 bus, so he opened his presents before the rest of us were up. He apparently caused a near-riot at the bus stop when he asked his friends Blue and Claire, "What did you guys get from the three kings?" They wanted to know why THEY didn't get presents. Here's Kieran's booty:

Nicholas has become obsessed with Cinderella. The first thing he says upon waking is "Where'd my Cinderella go?" He's referring to a little Cinderella figurine (whose arm has broken off!). He pretends that he's Cinderella by pretending to sleep, clean, and go to the ball. I am tickled by the wonderful irony of my son being obsessed with a sexist happily-ever-after fairytale, but identifying with the princess rather than the prince! His princess stickers (from King Grandma) were his favorite gift:

Chris got a "crammer" MP3 player (which a king found marked down dramatically at Costco), which allows you to download test questions and music. For some reason, every time we take his photo, he opens his eyes really wide! Gives meaning to the term "wide eyed and bushy tailed"!

Time to take down the Christmas decorations now...which always makes me a little bit sad!

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