Christmas came and went all too fast this year. Christmas Eve was a day filled with much anticipation and feasting. We always do our nice dinners on Christmas Eve so Christmas Day can be enjoyed by all (meaning I don't have to slave away cooking on Christmas Day). Everyone sat patiently for our traditional "Christmas Dinner" photo and then we feasted on ham, potateos, rolls, and vegetables. It was a delicious dinner and I have to give most of the credit to my mom who cooked the better part of it.
The kids were really excited after dinner to open one gift. Either they forget that the one gift they open is always pajamas or maybe they were hoping that we would let them open something else because after opening up their pajamas they said, "Just pajamas...can't we open just one more??" Oh the temptation to just open all the gifts--but no--we wait until morning. Grandpa Al sent the kids a gift to be opened on Christmas Eve. It was the book, "The Night Before Christmas," read by Grandpa himself. The kids enjoyed being able to hear his voice since he couldn't be here for Christmas. It was a really thoughtful gift and came at the perfect time.
After listening to our new Christmas book a couple of times each of the kids picked out a costume from our nativity costume bag. This was the first year the kids dressed up as we read in Luke about the birth of Jesus. I am so glad that I purchased all of the nativity costumes from my cousin last year. The kids were so excited to role play. Andrew was the Shepherd and Joseph. Peter was a wiseman. Emma was so excited to played the role of the Angel. Next year maybe Abby will be able stay up to join us and be Mary.
It wasn't too long before their little bellies called for cookies. The kids helped Mike make the cookies and then they each got to decorate a handful of cookies. Every year each of the kids get to decorate a cookie and put it on our Santa Christmas plate along with some carrots for the reindeer. We are always careful to put the plate on the side of the fireplace so that Santa doesn't step on it when he comes down the chimney!! The excitement was high for sure. I wasn't sure if they would all be able to fall asleep right away but sure enough they were out rather quickly after being told that Santa would not come until they were all asleep. Last year the boys decided to be sneaky on Chrismtas morning so they got their flashlights and headed downstairs to see their presents. I must have sensed their naughtiness because I immediately woke up and raced downstairs to prevent further peaking. Luckily their flashlights weren't working well and so they didn't really see anything. This year just to be safe I put up the gate and then gave them a stern lecture about not peeking and told them that if they went downstairs they would not get to play with what Santa brought them. No one dared to be sneaky this year.
Christmas Morning...
Everyone actually slept in until after 7:00 am which was so nice for the adults who stayed up way too late. Abby was the only unhappy camper. I think she was a little confused why we were all so excited to go downstairs. She was not happy when I gave her to Andrew for a picture. The big kids were so helpful in singing the Alligator song so she would stop crying. The kids were so patient so I hurried downstairs to turn on the lights before giving them the cue to come on down. The flew like there was no tomorrow. The boys immiediately ran to their Santa gifts while Emma went straight to her stocking to eat her candy and gum---she takes after her mom I guess!! Abby wasn't quite sure what was going on but went along with the fun anyhow. She did enjoy her new shopping cart and pushed that around for awhile before playing with Emma's new dollhouse. They were all so excited by their gifts but I think everyone was in awe of Peter's new pet dinosaur Rexy. He was quite the center of attention for most of the morning. Emma finally noticed her doll house after eating some of her Hello Kitty gum and played happily with it for most of the morning. Andrew was happy to sit on the couch and listen to his new ipod. We were grateful for Santa's generousity...BUT Santa made one little error this year. When unwrapping Emma's dollhouse he realized he had brought her the dollhouse with the African American family instead of the Caucasian family...OOOPS!!! Silly Santa sometimes makes mistakes. It wasn't anything that couldn't be remedied with a quick stop on Amazon.com to purchase the caucasian mom, dad and twins. It did make for a good laugh though!!!
There wasn't much delay between the excitement of the Santa gifts and the opening of all the rest of the presents under the tree. It was like three bulldozers came in and ripped the place apart. There were presents flying left and right, paper being ripped like the toys were going to disappear if they didn't open them fast enough. I was busy making mental note who each present was from and so it wasn't until the end that I finally got to open some of my presents. My big present from Mike this year was a picture of the Resurrected Christ taken by the great photographer Mark Mabry. I am so excited to have a beautiful picture of the Savior to put in our home. Mike's big gift from me this year was an electric guitar. It has been a long time coming and now he can finally jam away. I guess this means I have to learn how to play his acoustic or maybe I will have to pick up the electric and learn so we can play together. There were so many other things we received for which we are grateful for. We really enjoyed being able to have my parents and brother here during Christmas to share in the joy. My favorite part of this Christmas Day was watching the excitement on our children's faces as they enjoyed each of their gifts and the love of family!! Staying in our pajamas ALL DAY LONG was also ranked up there with my favorite part of the day. My least favorite part, however, was cleaning up the mess. I think it took us two days to get everything all cleaned up and the toys put upstairs. I can't really complain as I look at my children and see their happy faces!!! Christmas is the BEST!!
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