1. Don't leave Christmas shopping until Dec 22nd. Especially if it's your anniversary, you have a free casino hotel room and a babysitter. Never again.
2. Finishing shopping on Dec 23rd is no fun either.
3. Tired, sick 2 year olds are no fun. None.
4. Patience, patience, patience.
5. Children act like children because they are...wait for it...children. If you treat them like adults and expect them to act like adults, all they turn into are bossy children. No thanks.
6. If you buy toys that need batteries, include the batteries.
   
7. A simple hug and "I'm sorry" goes a long, long way.
8. If your belly is full, STOP EATING.
9. The best part of my Christmas, as always, is watching everyone open their gifts slowly. For 4 hours. Really, I'm not being sarcastic. I honestly love that my family all gathers Christmas morning (parents, kids, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins) and opens each gift in turn. But parts of me also wish for a simple Christmas morning.
   
10. When your Christmas tree falls over on Dec 27th, it may be time to call it. Although a little early this year, we will be clearing out our Christmas gear soon.

And, I haven't even looked at any pictures taken in the past two weeks. But I did just (very quickly) create a few scrapbook pages from all the photo Christmas cards we received. I still had last year's sitting around, so I did those, too. I've been wanting to save my friends' kids' pics and be able to watch the changes from year to year.