If I could describe our Christmas Day this year in one word it would probably be......relaxing. This is one of the only years in my life that I haven't been to my parents or my in-laws house for Christmas. In fact the only other time I can remember not going would have to be the year I had Eli and then we had everyone come to us. Although I missed family like crazy, it was sort of nice to just relax at our house and allow the children to spend the day enjoying their new toys/crafts/candy/games/etc.
After Christmas magic has happened, but before children have awoke {annual tradition for me to taken pics like this because otherwise I will definitely forget during the morning chaos}. I have to admit that although I get tired staying up late on Christmas Eve, I actually really enjoy arranging and presenting all the gifts for the Holiday.
--FYI: never mind the tree that looks half decorated. Somehow we only ended up decorating 2/3 of the tree with pretty white lights paired with green wire. It took three trips to Walmart just to obtain enough lights for this much of the tree and that point I gave up. Also Robby managed to program half the lights on the tree to be constantly blinking and the other half to be permanently on. Thus the tree looks like it hardly has any lights on in the picture. The kids had a blast this year going all out and deciding where every ornament was going to hang. They were being so cute about it that I totally gave up in my efforts to make our tree "perfect and pretty". There is always next year for that :)
This year my kids did AMAZINGLY well and Maddie didn't wake up until 7:30-7:45am-ish. She was so excited that it was Christmas Morning and was nearly bouncing off the walls when she came running into our room. We tiredly told her to go back to bed because the brother's are sleeping. Next thing I knew it was 8am and three little sets of eyes were staring at me in the face telling me it was Christmas and time to see what Santa brought us. We tried to get our annual picture of all three children before they headed downstairs, didn't quite turn out as good as last year....booo. Silly Eli has his eyes closed, Robby didn't want anything to do with smiling and would only give me this partial grin and then M was so happy that she couldn't keep still.
Maddie makes me laugh...of all the new toys that she has received, one of her faves was this $6 stuffed animal puppy that she picked out from Walmart with her piggy bank money and tooth fairy money (more on that later). She is obsessed with this thing and loves to dress him in her personal clothing and insists that he sit at the table for meal time.
Robby LOVES the Little Critter series of books and so he was thrilled to receive a new one from the Hamelwrights.
I love how much Eli wanted and still wants these cowboy boots. He spotted them at Famous Footwear a few weeks before Christmas and immediately added that to the beloved Santa list. He is such an easy kid to please and just wanted Cowboy boots, a flashlight and Legos. Needless to say, he was a very happy boy on Christmas Morning to see that all his wishes came true :)
Isn't she lovely? This is seriously the only picture that I took in Sunday Christmas Day apparel. Maddie LOVES her new butterfly craft set from Grandma and spent lots of time painting her face with her new makeup from Robby. She wore her face like this for hours on Sunday :)
Below: proof of exactly how messy a small house like ours can get on Christmas Day. I am semi-embarrassed to admit that we had quite a few of these messes in the next few days following the Holiday as well. Apparently not embarrassed enough to refrain from posting about it however.
Awe, much better organization, yes?! This was after hours at the Toronto house and the living room immediately went to chaos once the kid-lets awoke the next morning.
Oh and proof that we did indeed sent a very late, very last minute Christmas card out to the masses. And if you normally get a card from me and haven't yet then just FYI it may be still coming. I just found another pile of cards that I thought I had already mailed.....yikes
One thing I was incredibly nervous about this year was the wish lists my kids came up with. First M and R came up with Santa lists that were way too long and intricate. I was concerned about this and talked with both of them. We decided to have each of them come up with their top three wishes and write them down. Unfortunately this is what they came up with:
{I especially love the P.S. note where she reminds Santa that we have moved to NH}
He seriously cracks me up: "I'm trying my best to be good, but sometimes I'm bad". At least Robby is honest in his Santa letter right?!
So Eli's list was obviously completely doable but then I stressed and stressed about the other two lists. They really ended up not asking for much, but the thing they asked for was a doozy. Number one, those Nintendo game systems are incredibly expensive and number two, why should I feel like I should by my child such a large present when they are 4 and 6 years old. I kept telling them that DS game systems are very expensive and that Santa might not be able to bring them such a large gift. M and R kept the faith and reminded me that they were trying super hard to be good. I went back and forth on what to do until J and I finally talked things out and opted against getting the game systems for them. Luckily Santa came to the rescue and wrote them a note that they read Christmas morning. He told them that he knew they weren't perfect but that he was proud of how hard they tried to be good. Then the golden ticket was when he told them that he knew they would LOVE their presents even if they weren't exactly what they had wished for. And you know what, there was no need for all the worrying I had done. At first Maddie thought for sure the wrapped present by her stocking was a DS, but once she opened it up and found a kid camera she was perfectly content. And Robby was quite pleased with the remote control Monster Truck he scored from the big man. Thanks so much kiddos for you gratitude for all the wonderful presents you received on Christmas this year.
One thing I was incredibly nervous about this year was the wish lists my kids came up with. First M and R came up with Santa lists that were way too long and intricate. I was concerned about this and talked with both of them. We decided to have each of them come up with their top three wishes and write them down. Unfortunately this is what they came up with:
So Eli's list was obviously completely doable but then I stressed and stressed about the other two lists. They really ended up not asking for much, but the thing they asked for was a doozy. Number one, those Nintendo game systems are incredibly expensive and number two, why should I feel like I should by my child such a large present when they are 4 and 6 years old. I kept telling them that DS game systems are very expensive and that Santa might not be able to bring them such a large gift. M and R kept the faith and reminded me that they were trying super hard to be good. I went back and forth on what to do until J and I finally talked things out and opted against getting the game systems for them. Luckily Santa came to the rescue and wrote them a note that they read Christmas morning. He told them that he knew they weren't perfect but that he was proud of how hard they tried to be good. Then the golden ticket was when he told them that he knew they would LOVE their presents even if they weren't exactly what they had wished for. And you know what, there was no need for all the worrying I had done. At first Maddie thought for sure the wrapped present by her stocking was a DS, but once she opened it up and found a kid camera she was perfectly content. And Robby was quite pleased with the remote control Monster Truck he scored from the big man. Thanks so much kiddos for you gratitude for all the wonderful presents you received on Christmas this year.
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