Christmas Morning 2010
Amazingly, our crew did not wake us at the crack of dawn. There must have been many fun activities late into the night at the sister sleepover because the house was quiet until about 8:00 AM. We have a little system going for Christmas morning where the girls come and get us and then have to wait at the top of the stairs until we let them know we're ready. "Ready" means lights on, coffee and camera in hand and any last minute adjustments made. I have a feeling we will hear some tall tales about the whole thing when they're older such as, "kids, when I was little, my mom and dad made us wait two and a half hours Christmas morning before we could open our presents." We'll see. Chris likes to have fun with them (ie. torture them). This Christmas was so nice. We always take turns opening gifts so the whole process lasts a long time and even though we thought this was a fairly humble Christmas, with gifts under the tree for seven people, it ended up feeling extravagant.
I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story of our morning. Be sure to read the captions. One of them tells about the best gift I've gotten in a long time. It made me cry. Really.
The stockings were hung on the piano with care....our next house will definitely have a mantle.
The drawing was left for Santa by Mia. He forgot it so we made sure to get it to him.
Waiting patiently
Santa even left breakfast this year.
Mia has been crushing her dad in this game all week.
Admiring someone else's gift
It's from mom. I wonder what it is...
I buy them all clothes every year because it's my favorite thing to shop for.
They tolerate it pretty well but it's a joke between them.
Matthew's ornament for Madeleine
Time out to play the princess fish-for-jewels game
Madeleine bought it for her sisters and they love it.
Grace's favorite gift. From her godparents, Tara and Lawrence.
More clothes from mommy.
Can it be?
It is! Her first cell phone.
Her sisters gather around in awe.
Meanwhile, Ella opens a cotton candy maker from her godparents, Jamie and Jonathan
I think she likes it
Chris opens a Homer gift from me.
Star Wars sheets for our bed. They are very cool. If you come to visit, we may let you borrow them.
And here is the best gift of the day, month, year. From Chris I received a few great things including a clear Fossil watch which is the first non-sports watch I have worn in so long I can't remember any other. I like it a lot but this year's award for gift-giving goes hands down to my SIL Jes who gave me a book of the first four months of Frodo Seven. When I opened it and realized what it was, I started crying and had to leave the room. I could tell that I was holding something that Jes had worked hard on and that meant so much to me. Then there's the love I have for my blog. I have put so many hours into my posts that they represent a big chunk of my life over the past two years. In 2009, I blogged almost every day and this year, though I've slowed down a bit, I've been consistent. I have logged well over 500 blog posts and am very proud of what I've accomplished. Because of Frodo Seven, I can honestly call myself a writer. A writer is first and foremost a person who writes and I have definitely done a lot of that. Frodo Seven is also a kind of wonderful highlighter, bringing to the forefront the good things in our lives. That's been particularly important in 2010 which has been a hard year for us. Lately, I have considered putting Frodo Seven aside to work on a more serious writing project or two but after seeing the book, I can't quite do it. I love that my "first book" is about our family. What could be better? It's amazing that it is 160 pages and only covers the first four months of the blog. I have a lot of work to do to finish what Jes started but now that I've seen the end result, I am definitely motivated. So, thank you, Jes! Once again, I crown you queen of all gift ideas.
And here's Ella, napping where she fell in the midst of it all.
Mia and Madeleine playing Mancala. Mia is lying on her new pillow pet.
All of the girls got one--Madeleine got a penguin, Mia, a panda, Grace, a dolphin, Sophie a purple unicorn and Ella, of course, a dog
Some cool gifts not shown--Kevin and Abby sent capes for all of the girls with their initials on the back. They are so cute and I will post pictures when I get them.
We took a break from relaxing to take a special picture. I emailed it to Jes and Dave to put on mom and dad's gift. As they recently got back into square dancing, my siblings and I pitched in on a shopping spree for "goofy" clothes. Here, Mia and Grace are supposed to be dressed up to square dance. I told Chris that square dancers do not wear coon skin caps but Mia does look good. You can tell she's thrilled about being the boy. (Her glasses are the ones Chris wore in the anniversary video when he played young Paka.)
The photo that went on their card.
And that's all for now. If you made it through that whole post, congratulations. We still have Christmas night and three special birthdays to cover in the coming days. See you here next time!
