Christmas Day

I think the kids basically all woke up at the same time on Christmas morning and were excited to head downstairs to discover what Santa brought them in their stockings and open presents.

(Your eyes aren’t deceiving you, those are LED lights on the top of the Christmas tree.  My Mom restrung the top when the lights weren’t working and it just so happens that clear doesn’t always mean white clear.)

When Justin was growing up he didn’t have to wait for everyone to wake up and gather together before he could dive into his Santa stuff.  I enjoy watching the kids look through their stockings too much to ever miss that.  I love how excited they get over the most simple and usual quite practical little things they get.

Drew got lots of baby food in his stocking

Keeping with tradition the kids each picked out a gift for a sibling they drew at random.  Those were some of the most fun gifts – everyone picked out something perfect for their secret sibling.

Abigail got Katie new fusion bead boards and an idea template.  We’ve had countless hours of entertainment from these beads over the years.  The kids use them so much that we had to replace our big 22,000-bead bucket. 

Even though Abigail didn’t have Jason’s name she found a shirt for Jason over Thanksgiving break that she really wanted to give him.  It has "Dad’s Tough Guy" printed on the front of it.  He loved it!

Carly gave Drew a great little toy that is perfect for home or on the go.  Jason gave Abigail a doodle book and a big package of crayons.

Jason gave Carly a book of color by number pictures and a big new set of color pencils.  The girls may not look super stoked in these pictures, but really these were the perfect gifts for these two girls.

Will someone remind me next Christmas to take pictures of each of the kids with all their gifts?  Not that they got anything spectacular, but I have a few pictures from my childhood with all my presents and I think it’s fun to see what I was interested in and what was popular during that time.

Justin and I didn’t really exchange gifts (what’s new?).  We each had some pretty large purchases over the last month so we definitely weren’t lacking.  Justin does have a standing request though to receive a new church book every Christmas.  I couldn’t disappoint the guy.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing.  Val took the girls to check out the sledding conditions, but without any fresh snowfall the hills were pretty icy.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see any new snow while we were there so that huge suitcase full of snow gear went unused.  The Gardner’s came over for dinner that evening and while the kids hung out the adults played hearts.  Drew wasn’t the most cooperative, which made it difficult for me to play.  Abigail and Carly were excited to spend that night at the Gardners – we don’t do sleepovers with friends so it was a special treat for them.