Oh, December. You blast into our lives with a whirlwind of activities, obligations, illnesses, guests, and merriment, leaving no time or motivation for normal tasks, like blogging. Now I have a pile of pictures and memories nagging to be documented. I guess I'd better get started, and where better to start than Christmas day?
The rule in our home is that no one can get up before 7 am. This year Thane was the only one who struggled with that requirement; I first heard his little pitter-patters around 6 am. By 7, everyone was up and eager to run downstairs. They did manage to stand still just long enough for me to grab a Christmas morning picture (Aubree purposely chose to wear the same pajamas she wore last year to try to confuse us when we looked at the pictures).
Heading down the stairs, semi-patiently waiting for everyone to join us.
First up, everyone got to open their stockings. This is the free-for-all section of Christmas morning and involved lots of squealing, excitement, and candy-eating. After opening stockings, the kids agreed to take a break for breakfast. At Aubree's request, we had french toast. I was impressed with how patiently they waited, both for the breakfast to be ready and to begin the present portion of the morning.
Generally, I try to limit each kid to 4 gifts from Mark and me (we don't do Santa). This year I think I ended up with 5 gifts per kid, plus a couple whole family gifts. They all agree they had a very generous Christmas.
Aubree's biggest, and most favorite gift was a sewing machine. She wasn't expecting it at all and was extremely pleased and excited.
Within a couple days she'd arranged to have her best friend over and the old ladies got right to work on a new project (a little quilt for their dolls).
Bryce's favorite gift was a fish tank. He'd been asking for a fish for months. He even made a long list of potential fish names (verrrrrrry unique names).
We'd gotten a little goldfish for a science unit earlier in the month (which Aubree named "Aunt Jin" from the book "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon"), and the little fish moved happily into her new abode. When Aunt Jin passes, Bryce will be able to choose a Betta fish as a replacement (and I'd be lying if I said he wasn't looking forward to Jin's death). We've maintained a strict "no-pet" policy for 13 years, so this is a big step.
Thane refused to stay still long enough to snap a picture during the present opening, but he says his favorite gifts were a Lego Batman set, a backpack, and a take-apart airplane. I got all the kids a swivel-car to share and miraculously Christmas day brought bright sun and mild temperatures, so we were able to go outside and try it out.
This was Graham's first year to really start to understand the gift concept, and he jumped right into the fray. He seemed most excited to get a pillow pet (all his siblings already had one) and a little toy shaving kit.
Hurray for the sun!
Aunt Kira got my kids a doorway puppet theater. Aubree and Bryce immediately put it to good use and put on a show for the rest of us. What a fun idea!
No comments:
Post a Comment