Merry Christmas!

 

Finally, Christmas Morning had arrived! I love Joshua's expression in the above picture... doesn't it just say it all? I must say this is one of the best Christmases I can remember. Having children makes the holidays all the more special, I think.

Joshua woke up and came into our room at 6 am. I had just finally dozed off. Daddy tried to get him to lay down with us and eventually got up with him and took a quick shower to wake up. In the meantime, I got ready as well. Caleb woke up around 8 am and we headed downstairs. The first thing Joshua said was "I can't believe Santa ate all the cookies! They're all gone!"

And instead there were presents. Here's Joshua's train table and the wrapped train tracks. First, Daddy asked for my Bible and read Luke 2 again to us. It struck me this year how much the baby was worshiped. As parents, you always think it's great when someone goes gaga over your kids. But, these people worshiped Baby Jesus knowing that He was the Messiah... the prayed for Savior. Thinking of Simeon and Anna at the temple, the shepherds and the magi - it was amazing to think of them bowing to a baby. And what a baby! To know that He would grow up to be the Jesus that we read about, performing miracles, dying on the cross for our sins and being raised again. It's pretty incredible to think about.

 

After Daddy read the story (we never want to forget about the real reason for Christmas, and we always want God to be first in our lives), the boys started opening the many gifts Santa left.

 

Before long, Grandpa Georgia knocked on the door. He sat on the love seat and watched the boys (and us) open gifts. Then he ate breakfast with us, which included pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs with cheese, along with fresh fruit.

 

The first thing Caleb opened was a universal remote. He always LOVES to steal Daddy's remote controls, so now he has his own to play with. He was excited.

 

The first thing we let Joshua open was his Thomas train. He was thrilled! He then said that Caleb should get Percy... only the Percy we ordered online never arrived in the mail. So, we continued to have Joshua open gifts. Joshua opened some matchbox cars (which Caleb also got), a Lightning McQueen car from the movie "Cars" which he hasn't put down since, a football, some Thomas cards, a couple more trains (like Henry, Duck, Spencer, Salty, Rosie and someone else...) and then his digital camera. He was excited. Now we have to show him how to properly use the camera. He immediately said "say cheese!"

 

Caleb opened his matchbox cars, some PJ's, a Color Wonder marker book, a Thomas pop-up book, and then his beloved prize of the day. Daddy bought him his own puppy (or the remote-operated variety) and Caleb was in love with this little barking & walking toy. In fact, he didn't want to open anything else. He's walked it around so much since that it already needs batteries.

 

Next Joshua opened his box of paints, paintbrushes, markers, chalk and art easel. Then we let him open his tracks and pulled the train table out. Grandpa Georgia helped us open all of the individually wrapped 160+ train track set. We couldn't believe how many pieces there were! Joshua was so excited!!! Everything else became chop liver then. I think we could have just done that and had a nice Christmas.

Eventually Caleb opened his "Cars" themed bopper bag that Shawn blew up for him. He likes playing with it. And, he opened his little tool set we got him. The Mr. Potato Heads set is still wrapped under the tree because he was tired of opening gifts at that point and wanted to play with everything that was already open (particularly anything of Joshua's). He tried to get Joshua's digital camera, played with his football, grabbed the Thomas trains (which we got a couple for Caleb), etc.

Then Shawn & I opened gifts from each other. I couldn't believe how incredibly thoughtful my husband is!!! We gave each other a 'wish list' and he bought almost everything on mine plus some other things he knew I liked or wanted. I tried to buy most of what was on his list, but a couple things didn't work out and then the one floor mat I bought him for the office came damaged. UGH! He seemed to like his new shirt he had picked out, and there were a few things I bought with him, but I didn't feel like I had a 'wow' item for him this year like I have in years past. What I wanted to buy him was a new laptop, but I wanted him to pick it out to get what he wanted. He said he'd rather wait and save the money. Then he spent a lot on me! One of my favorite gifts that I can't wait to try is the p90x DVD workout system. I'm so excited! And he got me a new trash can since the foot thing on our old one is broken (how thoughtful since I hadn't mentioned it!). He also got me a really nice GPS and many other things I couldn't believe. It was really an incredible morning.

After a nice hot breakfast, I cleaned up while Daddy played with the boys (and Grandpa then headed out to Aunt Jen's house). Then we opened the gifts from Grandma & Grandpa Ginder. Joshua got more matchbox cars and a really cool holder to keep them in... he LOVES it! He also got a Mickey Mouse movie with trains that he was thrilled about and a portable DVD player. He was excited! Caleb got some new shoes, big boy undies, socks, clothes and other nice items. We were blessed by a big picture of the entire family from Great Grandma Kennel's birthday and other nice gifts - thank you so much for everything!

After we all took a nap, we headed to Grandma & Ken's house. We headed down to the finished basement where Grandma handed out presents to the grandchildren and children. Here's a picture of Mom with Faith.

And here are Emma & Caleb on a stair down match.

 

 Joshua opened all his gifts with excitement. The kids got books, a really cute hat & gloves set, Joshua got a Leapster, and Caleb got a book sling to keep all his books where he can see them and easily access them.

 

 Shawn & I also got really great gifts, including some clothes for me (yeah!!!) and a game for the Wii that Shawn really wanted along with other nice things.

 

 Everyone continued to open gifts and I tried to take a couple pictures, but most of them didn't turn out all that well. Here's one of my sister Jen and her youngest son John.

 

 Here's Caleb trying to make himself comfortable in the baby doll stroller.

 

 And the Bean opened his stocking from Grandma...

 

And the big exciting bike that he begged Santa went practically unnoticed by the Bean because right before then he opened a James train from the story "James and the Bees." He LOVED it! He also really likes his bike, but he can only focus on one thing at a time. Daniel road Joshua's bike  that night quite a bit. Joshua was excited for the bike the next night when he was reminded of it. :) :) :) I'm sure he'll love it come Spring, especially! He really wanted a bike!

 

After the stockings were opened, we all headed upstairs to eat dinner, which included a sandwich ring created by my sister Jen, broccoli slaw made by my sister Becky, crackers & cheese and pretzels & soda that we brought, a fruit tray, a veggie tray, shrimp, meats & cheeses, cookies & pies made or bought by Mom, etc. It was amazing! I ate far too much, but everything was so incredibly good. After dinner the kids played a little and my nieces played Grandma's Wii and it was time for us to head home. I was still feeling a little under the weather and needed a good night's sleep. It was raining as we left, but we felt extremely blessed with all our gifts and all the love that was shared. The kids had had a fantastic day, and we had too. We all went home and crashed, feeling exhausted but thankful and loved. It was a really Merry Christmas. I think one of my favorite parts of Christmas this year was that it landed on a Friday. That meant Daddy had off work Thursday, Friday and then the whole weekend to enjoy our new Christmas 'toys.' Yeah!!!