The Big Day

Or should I say morning. Early, early morning. Like 5:30 early. But I digress.

This year, we started off the festivities by having the kids open their presents from each other. It was so wonderful to see them happily tear into the wrapping paper, inspect their new toy or other type gift, and then turn to their sibling and thank them for it. Does a mama heart good, I tell ya.

The rest of the morning was pretty standard Christmas fare. Stockings. Presents. Lots and lots of wrapping paper refuse. The kids got some really great gifts, as did we adults.

Lij picks a good spot to open some presents (surrounded by three of the now six stockings I've made since starting our little family - I finished Maddy's just in time)

Dyl is an "unwrapper" opposed to a "ripper"

Cole concentrates on his stocking stuffers (but it's hard to ignore that good-looking tree)

Maddy likes her first Christmas present - a sweet little doll from her big brothers

Look what Aunt Karen got us!!! (This is also the only picture we got of their homemade matching pjs together, minus Maddy's, of course - oh well, maybe next year!)

Giving Dyl's new fire truck a good once-over

Tom'pa helps the boys check out their (super cool) trucks from Grandpa Keysa

The boys got sleeping bags from Grandma and Tom'pa - Lij is breaking his in

Trying out big brother's new fire truck

But what was really amazing to see though, was the lack of materialism that the kids have. Apparently, Lij told Santa via a letter written at school (how is Santa supposed to see a letter written at school, I’d like to know?) that he would like a Star Wars book, Star Wars video, and a globe. We found this out too late to put additional items into Santa’s sleigh but, as a token effort, we printed off some Star Wars coloring book pages from the internet and stuffed those into the stockings. This (we came to find out) was not what Lij had meant by Star Wars – he had wanted “Clone Wars” as opposed to the original trilogy. But he never said anything to us about it. Never complained. Never whined. Never even mentioned that he hadn’t got what he’d asked for. Just happily and gratefully colored the pages he did get. (It wasn’t until several days later, when Grandma was running out to the store and asked the room at large if we needed anything, that Lij turned to her with all seriousness and said, “Yes. Can you get me a Star Wars the Clone Wars book please.” And what’s a grandmother to do? Of course she obliged such a sweet request.)

So, all in all, this was a nice Christmas. Especially since we got the best gift of all: a whole week with Grandma and Tom’pa and a visit from Nana, Pa and Aunt Aubrey to look forward to on the day after Christmas. And really, it can’t get much better than that!

Here’s hoping everyone’s Christmas was equally merry!!