Once upon a time I thought it was horribly lame to spend Christmas without any relatives. We always went to grandparents' houses for Christmas and that is just "what you did". But in recent years, we have discovered the joy in spending Christmas alone with our own family. And since it is growing so much, we are never at a loss for good company. Besides that, it is a huge headache trying to transport gifts and especially "Santa" stuff out of town, so we've chosen to spend the big day in our own house and we love it.On Christmas morning the kids were up at about 7:30, which was just perfect. Our kids have never been early risers so 7:30 was actually a little early for them to wake up voluntarily. They came in and got us, but we had given them strict instructions that they were NOT allowed to go look down in the living room until they came and got us. So get us they did, and we had family prayer, brushed hair, went to the bathroom, woke Devin and changed his diaper. Then it was time for the Christmas line up picture at the top of the stairs. We checked the plate of cookies, and sure enough, it was almost empty. In place of cookies and carrots, we found a letter from Santa. He is very good aout leaving us a thank you letter for the cookies, and he always tells the kids if he thinks they have been naughty or nice. This year, the report said that they had been pretty naughty, but pretty nice too. Santa really DOES know our family!
The kids found their stockings, along with one unwrapped Santa present and two wrapped Santa presents. Santa always brings us three presents each to symbolize Jesus getting three presents when He was born. Mom is excited that since next Christmas we will have all our family members accounted for, we will have brand new matching stockings with our names on them!This year, Santa gave-
Ethan- Iron Man gear, Atalantis Legos, and a new Buzz Lightyear.
Hailey- A penguin pillow pet, an Easy Bake Oven (or a "bakery set up" as she has called it for months) and a Barbie animal swimming pool.
Lauren- A panda pillow pet, ice cream Play Dough, and a glmour Barbie swimming pool.
Devin- A gorilla pillow pet, a Buzz Lightyear ride on toy, and a muscial stuffed doggie.
They also scored super big time with stuff in their stockings! More legos, loads of candy, lotion, lip gloss, tools, camp stuff, toys, nail polish, cookies, gummy bears, bubble gum, books, and they each got a new movie.
After stockings and Santa gifts, we paused to go make breakfast. This year it was yuumy cinnamon coffee cake, breafast burritos (stuffed with eggs, sausage, hasgbrowns, and cheese), fruit, and OJ to drink. While Mom finished making breakfast, Dad showed the kids "magic tricks" with silly puddy they ach got from Santa.
We then headed back to the living room to open presents from family. The very first present we opened was the most ornate gift under the tree. Inside was a little Jesus figurine with a note telling us to remember Christ while we opened our gifts. Hailey was the lucky one to open it this year. 
Next the kids each opened a special present from Mom and Dad. They each got a framed picture of Christ for the rooms. 
Then we started our traditional family presents. We open gifts one at a time and try to savor each moment. This is something Cody's family has always done and we adopted it when Ethan was born. It makes the process go slowly, but it's more meaningful this way. Much better than ripping things open and going too quickly. The rule is that when you open a present, you have to give the "giver" a big hug and then find another present for somone else to open. You are never allowed to pick a present for yourself, only for someone else. When Hailey opened Lauren's present, Lauren was VERY insistant that Hailey gave her a huge. Before Hailey and even opened the present, Lauren stood up, put her hands on her hips an said "Hailey! You have to give Chudda a hug now!!" 
It seemed that everyone got exactly what they wanted. We didn't even change out of PJs until late in the afternoon, and the kids spent the whole day playing with their new stuff. It was such a fun and relaxing day, and so wonderful to spend it with our own little family. These are the moments great memories are made of!
The girls got new PJs and wrobes, and they couldn't wait to shower and get to try them out. I need to install special wrobe hooks in the bathroom so they have a place to hang them.
1 comment:
Growing up we always did presents one at a time as well. Craig's family did the same. But this year we had to change that. The whole family was together this year. My sister has four kids, so they had a TON of presents. And I had to got to work. We decided it would not be as much fun to just sit and watch her kids open present after present. Mostly we were thinking about our Cameron. We didn't want him to feel bad (the others probably got at least twice as many gifts as he did).
At this point we really can't see us staying home for Christmas. With only one child, traveling is not too bad. We never thought it would be this way for us, but we are grateful for the wonderful families we have to share such special times with.
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