Christmas continued

I haven't written much about our Christmas. Mainly because my camera wasn't charged when we went to Milwaukee and I didn't get many pictures of our trip and Christmas morning.
The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins. With four boys ten years and younger, there's always a lot of commotion when we get together, but as the kids get older the way they play together has changed too and it gets better with every visit. The boys enjoyed building with Lego's, DS games, watching Kung Fu Panda, playing in the snow, sledding, bowling, playing Webkinz (funny story to follow), decorating a gingerbread house, eating Christmas cookies, playing with the dogs, playing charades, playing with all the new toys from Christmas and just spending time together.

The story behind the Webkinz is this. Jacob and Kyle each got a Webkinz stuffed animal last Christmas. Jacob has played the online game with his virtual pet on and off this last year. The online registration expires after one year and you need to "adopt" a new pet if you want to continue having access to the online stuff. Kyle has never played Webkinz online and hasn't really cared about it. However, Drew and Erik have MANY Webkinz pets and like to play online so all four boys got a little obsessed with it and Jacob really wanted to continue his online account. This meant he needed to buy another Webkinz and register the special code. Sarah and I agreed to take all four boys to buy a new pet with their Christmas money and the husbands reluctantly agreed. Mel thought that buying stuffed animals was a waste of money and wondered why four boys wanted more Webkinz. The whole shopping for a new Webkinz pet was quite funny. It was like watching four girls shopping for shoes or purses. It took forever for each kid to decide on an animal and then they all wanted to buy clothes for their pets too. In the end Jacob chose a snake he named Stripe and Kyle chose a monkey he calls Monkey Monkey. All is well again in the Owen household. Jacob can play online with both virtual pets and with Jacob helping, Kyle can play with his virtual pet too.