Christmas Day...Finally!

I was greatly looking forward to this Christmas. Cole is starting to be old enough to remember things, so he was pretty excited and Emily always likes to follow Cole, so if he was excited, so was she! (This picture was taken before Christmas, but I'm considering our Christmas picture. I'm obviously not a professional!)
I woke up about 7ish, not wanting to miss the kids reaction when they walked out and saw the presents and stockings, but I stayed in bed and just listened. Addy woke up at some point and I brought her into our room. Emily came walking in about 8 and didn't say anything. I wasn't completely surprised because she usually just makes a beeline for our room in the morning and doesn't stop to do anything else. So we hung out in our room and waited for Cole. I just knew it was going to be great!

At 8:30, when Cole still wasn't awake, Chad decided he was going to take a shower. Cole finally walked in at about 8:45 and said nothing about Santa coming or anything. I was starting to go nuts and Chad was still in the shower so I couldn't even guide them out there! Finally, Chad finished and I starting asking Cole if we should check and see if Santa came or not. He looked at me and said, "Oh yeah, he came, I looked before I came in here." This was like 10 minutes after he came into our room! I couldn't believe I was so excited for a reaction and I got nothing!



It was now after 9 and we had not done a single Christmas morning thing! Who does that with a 4-year-old?!













Stockings were always my favorite part of Christmas morning growing up because Santa always brought us a new book and some other fun gadget, plus we could get up early and open our stockings without our parents. Santa was apparently better when I was a kid though because my kids aren't into the stockings nearly as much as I was! Although Cole wanted to show Chad every single piece of chocolate in his stocking! It was quite humorous.


After the stockings, it was on to the presents. Cole can read names now, so he was in charge of handing out the presents, although he sometimes confused the "To:" and "From:". Of course, he wasn't very speedy, which tried his Dad's patience at times, but for the most part, he did a good job.
Here are a few snapshots.













































































Addy and I in our Christmas morning glory!













Chad, freshly showered, looks much better than I do!








The kids were much cuter than their parents on Christmas morning! (Although Addy is a little lost amongst the presents and stockings.)













Ok, and now the fun stuff!
Every year, Santa brings Chad a new atlas because he's (Chad, not Santa) sort of a map geek! As shown in this picture, he's turning Cole into one as well! The two of them spent way too long examining the new atlas that is barely different from last year's version!



I was very excited for two of the gifts that Santa brought for the kids. First of all, we got a magazine in the mail about 6 weeks before Christmas that Cole looked through. He found this castle that he told me he really wanted. I tried to talk him out of it and into a different castle many times, but he stuck to his guns that he wanted the one from the magazine. So, I made sure Santa was going to bring him that castle. However, the picture on the box looked completely different than the one in the magazine and I did not get the reaction I was going for!

I was also very excited about a present for Emily that was an easel with a chalkboard on one side and a magnetic white board on the other side. So, I also made sure Santa brought that to Emily. However, due to its size, Santa did not wrap it, he just put it backwards so you couldn't tell what was in the box. Once again, that was apparently a mistake because I did not get the reaction that I was looking for there either! However, I should just stick with the $5 puzzle because that got the biggest reaction of all of her presents! Oh well! Live and learn!


Thankfully both presents have lived up to my hopes since then and have been played with a lot!
Just like that, the excitement of Christmas morning was over. Over a month of planning, shopping and wrapping was finished in just over 2 hours! (That's a little depressing to think about!) But, overall we had a great Christmas! We are grateful for our children and the good life that we have!