anyone remember Laverne & Shirley?

Please PLEASE PLEASE! tell me i am not SO OLD that I am the only one who remembers the T.V. show "Laverne & Shirley".
Remember the era of "Happy Days" with Fonzie and Pinky Tuscadero??
Who didn't love Laverne, Shirl, Lenny & Squiggy and all their antics? It was SORT OF a modern day "I LOVE LUCY" (i know, i know, probably NO purist would compare the two in the same sentence...but i was an 8 yr. old easily entertained so give me a break!)
Now I am certain you all are wondering WHAT in the world could that old T.V. show have to do with Christmas? at all?
i am going to tell you!
Every year, as i would wrap up a few of the gifts for my children from Mom and Dad (me & kyle) and put them underneath the tree (which leans slightly right this year much to my dismay) i would find my children at odd moments beneath the tree. They would be shaking, wiggling, and in any other way humanly possible, trying to figure out what was beneath the wrapping paper or inside the box.
I DO KNOW that I could easily solve this problem simply by NOT putting anything out early, but i do like to have a present or two under the tree, and obviously Santa doesn't make his appearance until late Christmas Eve.
Last year, I was struck by what I like to call SHEER GENIUS! (or maybe it was insanity, I do know the two are closely related and I daily teeter between them both)
Back to my "genius"....
I decided to give each of my children a "SECRET NAME" (imagine that being said in your best James Earl JONES voice, it really makes it sound SO much better!)
SO, much to their chagrin and my (great)amusement they became became...JUAN(aka Eliza), LEONARDO (aka Olivia), REPUNZEL (aka Grace) & OLIVER (aka Josh). The names were very randomly choosen and they spent days trying to figure out WHO was WHO! (i actually think i took the 2nd letter from their names and twirled around two times singing Christmas carols until a new name came to me.)
They had NO CLUE who was who (and i forgot daily too so it was written down and tucked away in some "secret place" which i forgot as well)
But it was all good, Santa has a great memory and he got the Josh, Grace, Eliza and Olivia presents stacked in the right piles (thank goodness for Santa!)
This year, I just finished wrapping up my "mom & dad" gifts and setting them beneath the tree. I picked a theme for names this year. From one of my favorite shows from the 80's. (probably before some of you were born, sigh)
As the gifts were stacked beneath the tree (with its slightly right lean) the kids were scratching their heads "who the heck are Laverne, Shirley, Lenny & Squiggy mom?"
"WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAA???" said I.
HOW could they possibly have made it thus far into their youth without a CLUE who these people were??? SOME of them did not even know "THE FONZ".
Certainly I have failed as a mother!
BUT thank goodness for the internet and google (see, another good use of the internet we could use in a conference talk...teaching the kids about old T.V. shows. hmmm, probably not!) Ah well, for what it's worth, it worked for us!
We googled LAVERNE & SHIRELY and HAPPY DAYS and had a brief, but enlightening discussion about the "good old days" (now wait i am looking over my shoulder and they are all gone, the room is empty, well, I ,AT LEAST, had a good conversion with myself about the "good old days".)
And so, long winded as usual, that is my story, and I am sticking with it.
This year all the presents under the tree say LAVERNE, SHIRLEY, LENNY & SQUIGGY! (and NOPE! kids there is NO color coded clue in this blog entry, you will all have to wait until Christmas morning to see who you are this year!)
so, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL and to all HAPPY DAYS! (long live the FONZ!)