Christmas Morning

I have continued the advent calendar tradition for my kids that my own mom started for me when I was a kid.  I opened a window on a castle each day, revealing a Christmas related picture and then there was a small present for me to open as well.  Instead of the castle, I have a pocket one I made a few years ago but the present calendar is the exact same one I used as a kid.  I still remember being so excited for it to be hung the morning of December 1st and knowing I'd get to open a present each day until Christmas!  

I knew Bean would be totally into it this year.  I wasn't expecting Boy to be into it at all.  I was wrong!  Each morning he would walk over to the calendar and, on the days it was his turn, I would hold him up to point to the one he wanted, after which he would walk over to our spot on the floor and open it.  It took about a week for him to catch on.  I was really excited!  Bean didn't understand opening presents really well until last year.  Maybe it was her excitement this year that was so contagious for Boy.

Anyway, there was a problem with Boy catching on to presents so quickly--he would open any present in sight.  Which meant that up until Christmas morning our tree looked like this:

I really, really love how pretty trees look with presents tucked neatly around them.  But there was no way that I was wrapping presents twice so I had a bare tree this Christmas.

I had to work Christmas Eve but got off early enough to come home and play Santa Claus.  S had the kids open their new pajamas and Christmas book before they went to bed.  Bean was beyond excited when she got a nightgown with Disney princesses on it.  S told me he couldn't wait to see how excited she was when her real presents came!

She wasn't the only one excited--S and I hauled up all of the presents late that night, made sure there was evidence that Santa had been there, and watched midnight mass.  We finally decided we'd better head to bed ourselves.

I woke up fairly early to get ready for the day but it quickly became evident that my family was sleeping in that morning.  I didn't care too much.  I hate rushing around on holidays anyway, so I made myself some oatmeal and got some reading done.  It was actually a really nice morning!

A little after 9 S finally woke up so we decided it was time to get the kids up too.  We usually have to pry Bean out of bed.  And after what happened last year (Bean being so afraid that Santa was still there that she refused to come downstairs,) we weren't sure what kind of reaction to expect this year.  I'm happy to announce that Bean is officially over her fear of Santa Claus.  Who couldn't love someone that brings you lots and lots of toys?!

Bean's first reaction walking into the room was 'Mom, Santa filled my stocking!!'

We showed her the missing treat, wrappers (Santa sure is messy,) and his magic key to get inside our house.

And then it was present time.  I think Bean was a little overwhelmed.

Boy was excited too!

Boy didn't play by the 'play with the box' rule.  He knew there was a toy inside this box and he was not satisfied with us keeping it in the box for the time being.

Bean's ultimate present: 8 pack of princess dolls.  My goodness.  They are all best friends now.

Santa was really great to me this year too!  Last month we were walking around Macy's and I showed S this enamel cast-iron dutch oven and strongly hinted that I would love one.  I wasn't sure he'd take me seriously but Christmas morning guess what was under the tree?

I can already smell the pot roast cooking...

Also, S denies this, but I swear he looked at my wish list(s) on Amazon and on my phone because every single thing that I got was something from my list.  If it's just coincidence then it's official: we've been married long enough for S to read my mind.

We went to my parents for breakfast and S's parents for lunch.  I had started getting sick the day before and, while I felt pretty good that morning, I really started feeling lousy as the day progressed.  By that night I was done for (and have been, unfortunately, every day since.)  But I am glad that I felt relatively good Christmas morning because it was probably the best one that we've had so far with the kiddos.