Thanks for the Ammo, Santa!

Well, as NORAD Santa Tracker predicted, Santa Claus made his appearance around 11:15 p.m. on the night of Christmas Eve just as soon as the kids were asleep (or at least faking sleep well enough for Santa to begin).
This year proved to be just the same as any other.  One kid had too much, one kid had way too little, and one kid had it just as originally planned.  The lack of communication in this house caused us to spend $$$hundreds$$$ more on Christmas than we originally intended.  I blame Mr. Zembower since he just had to have the new gun for his sweet male offspring.  Our middle child scored big with a new TV for her room so that they finally quit fighting daily over Zac's TV.  She was thrilled.  Our youngest scored what was left on the shelves the day before Christmas Eve.  She's only five and still easy to please, though ((and there were no more KAROAKE machines left in this town!!!)).  Their family time for Christmas also proved prolific in the gift department.
Now, as the holiday winds down, we are getting back into our normal swing of things.  I am doing what any good mom does, using these new possessions as ammo.  ((Don't judge.  You know you do it, too))
 My middle child is losing things left and right.  I've checked her "clean" room three times already.  I've written of her housekeeping abilities before in this post about chores and this follow up post.  She's a disaster.  Picture the child of Pigpen and the Tasmanian Devil.  If she touches it, it remains where she left it...all over my house.  When asked if she cleaned her room, brushed her teeth, took a shower, etc, she responds with a fully believable, "Yes."   Lies...all of them.  It's time for action.  No matter what I am doing, how busy I think I am, I will have to go to her task and double check.  I've started this today.  She was told that each time I checked and she had lied, she would lose a new beloved item.  So far, she's lost her TV and her new Heeleys on my only two checks.  Next is the Nook, then the football.  I will WIN...I will be VICTORIOUS!!  I WILL have a home that I can actually have surprise guests one day without being utterly embarrassed at the state of disarray that our home is in!

Lesson:  The middle child is a tough nut to crack.

In other news, Santa has since found two more bags of gifts (mostly clothing) in the bag of her his sleigh.  I also blame this on Mr. Zembower since he was the one designated to retrieve said items from the back of the sleigh at 11:00 pm on Christmas Eve.  :(

~ACZ

One more note to defend my grammatical intelligence.  This font apparently makes my uppercase S look like a lowercase S in my title on the word "Santa".  I assure you, I have checked and rechecked, and I definitely put an uppercase letter there.  :(