"Cookies," my oldest says.

"Hot chocolate," votes my middle daughter.

"Popcorn," Sadie squeals.

On the surface it would seem as though they are starving, but they all mean the same thing.

Their favorite thing about Christmas is the time we spend in the kitchen as a family, measuring, stirring and baking treats and the time we spend piled up on the couch, watching "Home Alone" for the 200th time and enjoying our homemade goodies.

The last few years as Christmas break has rolled around I've been nervous about having to entertain my children for almost three weeks.

Summer break seems easier to me as a parent. At least then it's warm outside.

Play dates are as simple as opening your back door.

Christmas break comes with traveling all over creation to see your family, packing and unpacking bags and spending twice as much money as you normally do.

But my life has been so hectic over the last few months, this year I've looked forward to sitting around in my pajamas with my girls, drinking hot chocolate and simply listening to them talk.

I've been trying to pry out of them what they want for Christmas. They tend to be very vague on their wish lists until Christmas Eve when it's entirely too late for me to do anything about the fact that the one and only toy they now claim to want so badly, hasn't been purchased.

This year I have repeatedly asked my girls, "What do you want for Christmas?"

Apparently I asked one too many times and Aubrey, my 7-year-old, wheeled around in my face and hollered, "I'm satisfied with what I have! Okay?"

I was shocked into silence.

Well. Okay.

I guessed I was on my own on the shopping front until a few days later when I overheard her telling her friend what she wanted for Christmas. I took her aside later that afternoon.

"Honey, I've been asking you for two months what you wanted for Christmas and you keep saying 'Nothing.' Then I heard you telling Elizabeth that you wanted that doll more than anything on the planet. Why didn't you tell me that?"

"Because. I knew it was too expensive and I already have what I need," she calmly explained.

Well. Alrighty then.

Somebody is more grown up than her Momma.

Sadie, my almost 3-year-old, has asked repeatedly for "Wickstick, makeup and candy corn." That's a list that I can gladly cover.

Candy corn may be an out- of-season delicacy, but it's doable and maybe with lipstick of her own she'll quit using mine as her medium of choice for her bathroom graffiti.

Emma has the most extravagant Christmas wish list including everything her sisters have asked for as well as a guitar, "sheep music," a microphone with a speaker and any toy she happens to see on television or advertised in print.

In fact, just a few nights ago I overheard her telling my mother, "I'm going to get a real little pig for Christmas."

I'm pretty sure she didn't mean bacon, but hopefully with a side of hot chocolate, one more showing of "Home Alone" and a little snuggle time on the couch, it'll do.

Robin O'Bryant is the author of "Ketchup is a Vegetable and Other Lies Moms Tell Themselves." Read her blog at www.robinschicks.com or find her on Facebook.