so my mom, see, she is amazing. i dont know how she does stuff. she's still got 4 kiddos living at the house, and they are not an easy bunch, let me just tell ya!! to have 3 teens in the house and the forever baby of 6 kiddos, this is a recipe for stress. still, my mom manages to get everyone where they need to be, in the clothes they need to be in, fed the food they need to be fed, and tries to make everyone happy. meanwhile, she has her own life teaching school and working out and volunteering for stuff. geeze, just thinking of this makes me tired. and it doesnt stop there....my mom has started this crazy thing while my brother and i are at college. nevermind that my mom spends hours upon hours wrapping Christmas presents every december, not only for us, but for cousins and aunts and uncles. she decided that matt and i need 'advent presents'. yes, these are SO COOL. at thanksgiving break or so, she gives us each a sack full of presents. WRAPPED presents. a FULL SACK. each one is carefully labeled with a day in december. we are to open one each day, the one for that day. i once casually remarked that i wanted to open them all on one day. this was met with GREAT resistance and threats. but can i just tell you how difficult it is to have a whole sack of presents in your room and not open them? especially when no one is around. friends, this is a test of integrity....be amazed at my parents parenting capabilities when it comes to building character. who else would come up with such a ploy?? anyway, so the first gift, dec 1st, is always an advent calendar. naturally it would be. the other things are unpredictable. they are so random and cute and fun and its maddening to look at the boxes and try to determine what they could be. in fact, the temptation is very great. i will say i have never folded and opened a present early...yet. BUT here, friends, is the cool thing. dec 1st actually begins at MIDNITE. haha, yes, it does. being a college student, i am always, of course, up at midnite. therefore, i open the days present within the first few minutes of the day. i have a little christmas party every nite in my room a little after midnite. its very exciting. last year bree would often come in and take part in the celebration. sometimes at 11oclock, i will get real excited when i realize there's only one hour left till present opening!! SO all that to say, my mom rocks. and so do advent presents. my mom is cooler than your mom.