Christmas

I know you're all dying to know what we did and gave and got for Christmas, in detail, with about a million pictures. Well, guess what? Wish granted!

Christmas Eve in my family goes about like this: huge dinner, dessert we only get once a year, spiritual family fireside, open new pajamas, eat freshly-baked cinnamon rolls and drink wassail. I never appreciated the effort my parents went through to do all of this for us until I became a parent myself. For a once-a-year-event, though, it is worth it.

Opening the pajamas is a highlight even though you know what it is you're getting.

I think the kids were happy with what they opened.

We found these cute slippers for Ashley that she liked, but no one could get them on her feet even though they are a size too big! I will have to take them back or figure out a way to slit the sides and put velcro on them or something. Ideas?

Everett has shark slippers, and was excited about them, but he was even happier that he and William matched. Go rocket ships! Ashley was a little doll in her ruffles and leggings.

Christmas morning was fun. The kids woke up around 5am but we told them to go back to sleep. They played around for a while but ended up sleeping until after 7:00. Perfect!

William got a little plush, jingl-y bowling set. I wasn't going to get him anything because he has no concept of what a present is, but I realized that Everett and Ashley would notice if William had been left in the lurch. Five bucks later, and everyone is happy.

Ashley woke up to find a whole bunch of horses and riders. Someday I will get her the doll house that goes with these, but for now she is happy with the horses. I assume she is, anyway--she's slept with some every night.

Ashley's favorite part of Christmas morning was looking through her stocking.

The one thing she asked for was suckers, and she got them!

Everett was thrilled with everything he got in his stocking as well. He was so thrilled, in fact, that he snuck into my room this morning, found the stockings we hadn't emptied yet, and unwrapped everything he could before anyone noticed.

But his big gift was this bad boy. It is called Blu Track and it is pretty interesting. It is a 24 foot long piece of bendable plastic with two separated lanes, and you can bend it and twist it any way you want. The box showed pictures of courses with four or five loops and bends, but we only put two in (you roll it all up to put it away which means we can pack it in a suitcase easily). It can fit any 1:64 size car, which is all the usual cars you can buy. The best part is: no batteries!

Everett was most looking forward to the soda pop in his stocking, I think.

Ashley had fun examining the loot.

This picture is terrible and over-exposed, but I had to include it because Everett loves this dragon so much. My parents gave it to him and he has been sleeping with it every night. Ashley got a little boy horse rider with all her others and Everett sometimes uses it to ride on the dragon a la How to Train Your Dragon.

My brothers and sisters got the new Xbox Kinect gaming system. I have been really impressed with it. Using your body as a controller is really fun!

The kids got some fun presents from both sets of Grandparents, who, as usual, were too generous. So did Joel and I. We don't have so much that it will be too much trouble fitting it into our luggage, which was the goal. Hooray!

We had a wonderful Christmas. We talked more about Jesus than Santa Claus, and that is the way I like it. Santa does come to our house, and the kids look forward to it, but when I asked Everett who gave him his racetrack for Christmas, he pointed to me. I think he really does believe that Santa did, but I am not going to make a big issue of it. The belief in Santa only lasts a few years. It is all the other important stuff that I am more concerned about him remembering.

Merry Christmas!