Christmas

We had a great holiday. We were very excited to see how Luke would react. Thomas and I remembered the other kids being overwhelmed when they were his age, so we decided he would do best with fewer presents. We figured he would probably want to play with his presents as he received him. However, we were wrong! He was all about the opening of the gifts.

But, I am getting ahead of myself. Christmas Eve was our typically relaxed day, with one awesome addition--a big dinner. One of my friends mentioned that her family always had their big meal on Christmas Eve and then had leftovers on Christmas Day, which meant a more laid-back day. We decided to give it a try.  We made cookies for Santa, finished our wrapping and enjoyed our turkey dinner. We watched a movie and really enjoyed the day. 

The kids enjoyed eating "family style,"usually we just make up plates for them, so this was a big treat.

We told the kids that they could wake us at 600, but that we wouldn't go downstairs until everyone was awake. Jack knocked on our door to ask if we said 6 or 630, since Thomas was still asleep, I told him to come back at 630 which he did with Kara in tow. Anna came in around 7, so it was just Luke, who woke at his usual time of 715. We went downstairs together and everyone was excited to see the gifts laid out before them. Unfortunately, Kara had a stomachache, which put a bit of a damper on her enjoyment, although, she did keep exclaiming, "I forgot about the stockings."

Taken before the kids woke up (we certainly didn't have the t.v. on Christmas morning)!

I had a really hard time getting a good picture this year. This was the closest.

For "silly faces" Luke wanted to be "backwards," I snapped this shot as he turned to explain. 

After we went through our stockings, we moved on to gifts. We like to open one at a time, so everyone can see what everyone else is getting and, more importantly, see people open the gifts they chose. We took a break after a few presents to enjoy a pancake and sausage breakfast. 

We finished unwrapping our gifts from each other, then moved on to ones from Santa, followed by the joint family gifts. We got tickets to Dutch Wonderland (Luke needs to go at least once while he is at this perfect age) and a WiiU, which has been Jack's dream for years. Nintendo is coming out with a new console this year, so we will remain years behind the current technology. But, for now, they are happy.  

Anna was happy to see that Kara liked the gift she chose for her.

Jack opening his lightsabers

Anna repeatedly checked out this book from the library, she was happy to get her own copy!

Me showing off 3 necklaces, earrings and gloves.

Luke with his big gift from Santa--a hotwheels garage

It was a fun, relaxing day. Everyone enjoyed playing with their new toys. As we like to do, we opened gifts slowly, allowing time to play in between. After the first few presents, Luke lost interest in the contents of the gifts. At that point, he decided he really wanted to rip open presents. If we had known, we could have just wrapped up a few matchbox cars in big boxes, since he didn't really care about the contents, although he did like to "ooohhh and ahhhhh." Once it was all over, Luke kept asking if Santa was going to bring more presents. We were waayyyy off in what we expected from him. After gifts, it was on to the relaxing part of the day and just enjoying each other's company and having fun with our gift. We put a leaf in the dining room table to make additional space for lego building. 

At the lego building table

Which is also the crafting table. Just not the eating table.

For memory's sake, when I asked everyone their favorite gift Jack said the WiiU, Kara said her pogo stick, Anna said the Big Book of Girl Stuff, Luke first said "blue", then changed his answer to "presents"; Thomas said a British newspaper from 1778, and mine was a crossbar necklace with everyone's birthstone.