Christmas morning

Santa paid a visit to our house on Christmas Eve.

Even after all the fighting and squabbling these kids did this year, Santa must have thought they were pretty good because he left some nice stuff under the tree. Forget all that delayed gratification mumbo-jumbo I tried to tell him about... ;)

Santa leaves the kids' stockings in their rooms where they wake up very early and unload them on Christmas morning. This is always done in Max's room. You know, traditions.

Then they sing on the stairs to wake us up at 7:00. (I can never sleep that long...as soon as I hear them in there rummaging through stockings I'm up...so they really just wake Dave up at 7:00 while I take pictures.)Then they line up to go check out what the family room holds for them.
(They get pretty excited about that.)
Lucy got a bike and a huge Dora (I can't believe I don't have a picture of that yet). Yeah, that thing is like three sizes bigger than her other one and now she has to lug both of them everywhere she goes. But man alive, if something like Dora makes you that happy you should definitely have double.Gotta work on our biking skills...I have had visions of us all on family bike rides for a while now...Claire got her beloved American Girl doll. Even though she really, REALLY likes her, I think I like her even more. I love those things and I'm so glad I finally have a girl who loves them right along with me. She promptly changed her outfit over and over again (luckily Grammie was inspired to send some new clothes for that doll). Plus, she has changed her name about forty-five times. I think now she's settled on Jessica...or is it Abby??Grace got the watch with a peace sign she was dying for:
...as well as that iPod she's been talking about 'til she's blue in the face.
Max got a long board which he was over the moon about....
...and Elle got two "super snuggly blankets" because that was pretty much all she asked for. One of them was a "Snuggie" because "Santa" happened to end up with it at a white elephant party.

Then we noticed one more Santa gift in the tree for Max and Elle. They opened the first layer to find two small packages. They were pretty excited when they opened them:
(I love that picture.) They were iPod touches...something they have both wanted for a long, long time. (Check out that massive Dora in the back ground too.)

We oooo'd and ahhhh'd over each others' gifts for the next couple hours with wrappings filling our space (I love that).
Dave got an awesome tool set (that he picked out himself, poor guy):
I got some long-wished-for camera stuff:(please excuse that blurry photo)
Dave's partner in China sent us all the most comfy Chinese shoes ever.

Josh (my brother) was with us (we are so lucky to get him here). He got all the kids such nice gifts.
Grace put her new pedicure kit right to work. I was the lucky one to benefit from it.

Dave's parents and sister came over for our traditional Christmas breakfast together:
And to help us bask in the gifts a little more:Yes, it was such a good Christmas.

I took down all the decorations this last weekend except for this lone little tree:Part of me gets so antsy to get re-organized and re-vamp and start anew so I love putting away the Christmas decorations. But another part of me wants to hold on to the belief that if I cling to this little shred of Christmas just a little longer maybe I can prolong that sweet spirit that whole season brings.

I am going to try to slow down this year and let that Christmas spirit linger. Because isn't that what life is really all about after all?

Labels: