Christmas Day

We begin our Christmas morning each year with kids waking us up around 7:00. (They're not allowed to come in any earlier, but there's always some mishap where we're woken earlier and have to tell them to come back later.) Then we read the Biblical account of Christ's birth in Luke 2.  This is the culmination of 12 days of scripture study centered around Christ's birth and the prophecies and events leading up to it. After this time to pause and remember why we're celebrating Christmas, we head out to the tree for the fun of Christmas morning presents.

This year, Christmas was on a Sunday and we had church at 10:00. At our children's suggestion, the plan was to see what gift Santa had brought and to open our stockings before church. Then we'd come home after church to really dig into the rest of the pile.  As Maggie put it, "I don't want to be interrupted."

Everyone bounded down the hall upon this scene.  Santa Claus brought Gunnar a wooden workbench with tools and nails, and a real retracting tape measure; that's what he's looking at in the photo.  Holly got a collapsible tunnel.  It's the green and pink hoop at  Adah's left. 

Maggie and Adah were looking everywhere for their gifts from Santa. It seemed that perhaps he'd forgotten, until we spotted the note on the piano pointing them into the family room.

In the corner of the family room was this desk and a note from Santa indicating that the box by the other wall held a second desk that their handy dad could put together:  one desk for Maggie and one desk for Adah. I wish I'd had a video camera set up to get Maggie's reaction. She screamed, ran over to the desk, then ran back and collapsed in some kind of ecstasy on the couch. In the photo below she has returned to the desk and is happily pounding on it while yelling something about being so excited to have a desk. These girls have been wanting their own desks forever, but have such a small room that it didn't seem possible.  However, with a little creative rearranging, we made them fit. It's snug in their room now, but they can both sit and draw and write.

We also opted to open one more gift before going to church. Adah got Legos. That was a big surprise because we'd been telling her that she couldn't have them until Holly was older. I loved the look on her face when she realized what she'd opened. I love making my kids happy.

Maggie's pre-church gift was her first Barbie. We've been able to avoid that route for awhile, but last Christmas she got a Barbie-sized ballerina doll and I wanted to find her another ballerina so when she has a friend over they can each have a doll. (As it was, she would never play with her stage and ballerina when friends came over.)  Barbie was the only ballerina I could find. So, now we have a Sugar Plum Fairy Barbie.

Here Maggie and Adah are inspecting the Phineas & Ferb toothbrushes that Santa put in their stockings.  Gunnar's still inspecting his tools.

We have sticky buns for breakfast on Christmas morning. I prep them (sometimes with kid help, if we remember early enough) on Christmas Eve and then they bake while we open gifts. We eat them while drinking the Martinelli's apple juice from our stockings.  Look at this happy crew!

After a lovely hour or so at church, we headed back home where Damon and I put on some comfy clothes and all the kiddos changed back into their jammies. It was pretty fun to still be opening gifts at noon!  I didn't pull the camera out until later when we were playing with all our toys.

Maggie was so excited to receive a face painting kit, and Damon graciously agreed to be her first victim, er patron.

He's a Dalmatian.  And he wore that face paint the rest of the day, including on a surprise visit he made to some neighbors. He got some pretty funny looks when they opened the door.

Gunnar was a tiger.  Maggie's still learning. She did the black first and then tried to put the orange on top. It comes out looking brown in the photo. Neither of them cared, though. It was so much fun! Gunnar got a Thomas the Train engine to match his other engines and train tracks. He also got more Duplos, a piggy bank, and lion and tiger figures.

Maggie's other fun gift was "clown stuff." She got a colorful shirt, a tiny hat that looks like a cake, juggling scarves, and several magic tricks and pranks.  She wants to be a clown when she grows up, just like her aunt Cotton Candy.  Maggie's clown name is Cupcake (hence the hat). Another favorite present was a pogo stick (a rummage sale $4 find!). She's pretty good at it already.

Adah's number 1 gift was a vet kit. I got her a doctor's kit and added a few extra things, like bandages and a medicine dropper. I also made little patient charts and put them on a small clipboard. It was all inside a bag that I personalized with an iron-on transfer. It says "Adah McMillan, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine."  It was a bit of work, but fun to make and a big hit with the future vet. She gave several check-ups to the stuffed animals of the house on Christmas.

Holly got several dolls. I gave her the matryoshka (Russian nesting) cloth doll that I found on etsy. Isn't it adorable? Maggie bought her the little blue and pink doll without even realizing Holly had pajamas in the exact same colors. Adah made a doll for Maggie using a wooden disk for a face/head, a paper towel roll for a body, and cloth for a dress and hair. It's very creative. 

Damon and I decided to get a new computer for Christmas, so soon we'll be using our new laptop! Damon made me a beautiful hanger for necklaces. It's something to hang on the wall with posts for the necklaces. I need to take a picture to show it off because it's so cool. He put metal posts in a piece of wood, but then put beads on the ends that look like knobs. Really, I should take a picture. Stay tuned. I gave Damon a new fleece (he wears one practically all the time in the winter) and a book on extreme weather.

These are just a few highlights of our Christmas goodies. We feel so blessed to be in a position to get fun and nice gifts for each other. I didn't do a good job of documenting our bounty. I wish I'd documented the kids' gifts to each other, as they each took time to make something for their siblings. They wanted to do it and it was fun to see them thinking of each other.