Christmas 2019

Hooray for Christmas! The kids were out of bed and ready for stockings bright and early. It is our tradition to open stockings first, then eat breakfast. While we were eating breakfast, around 8 am, the rest of the group joined us. So, we were all able to open presents together.

Ready for presents! The girls were dressed right away,

but the boys rocked their Christmas jammies for a while.

A bounty

That face you make when you find

a whoopie cushion in your stocking

And, she's blowing it up...

Straight to the candy

Don't worry about the leg buddy, we'll

bring the fun to you.

Mom's get excited about "boring" things

like kitchen ware.

New round of stockings, ready to go!

The breakfast spread.

Sneaking a peek

Sweet Adelaide was so excited about the present she got Mom and Dad. She saved all her class tickets for over a month to pick it out of the prize box for us, and couldn't wait until after breakfast to give it to us. She's such a thoughtful kid. She often spends her prize coupons to get her brothers' toy cars or even to get Eleanor little pencils. She rarely keeps her prizes for herself.

Light up statue that cost 40 whole tickets!

After breakfast, we turned to the under-the-tree stash. Our children are slow present openers. They like to play with the gifts as the get them, so we never rushed. In particular, one of the first presents the girls opened were new Zuca rolling bags for school. These bags are super expensive, put pretty popular at their school. Melinda got them from a buy-nothing exchange group she's part of (for free, score!). We had no idea how excited the girls would be.

Adelaide's jaw dropped and she dove into the bag after it, frantically trying to pull it out. Eleanor yelled, "PINK!!!" and started hugging hers. Then, they disappeared for twenty minutes to their room to swap their binders and folders into their new bags.

Anyhow, slow like that. So, we set out lots of snacks and cookies to keep our guests well fed throughout the morning.

Eleanor gave Jefferson her Minnie Mouse

to match his Mickey plush.

Grandma's light up foam swords were a hit.

Jefferson still can't walk, but he can stand on one leg

and smack his bro with a sword.

Present break - while the sister resorted their

bags, Steven added Avenger window clings

to the toy room windows (thanks Aunt Kristin).

Books, yay!

Happy book people. Thanks Grandma Donna!

Jed and his universal lid/battle shield.

A Phoenix! She named it Firey.

Her very own niffler!

Best. Christmas. Ever.

Steven really, really, really, really so bad, wanted a nerf gun for Christmas. And, Adelaide and Eleanor told us that if the boys got nerf guns, they couldn't be left unarmed. So, they all go nerf guns. Wouldn't you know it, within about one minute of opening them, Adelaide accidentally shot Matt in the eye from a couple feet away. That hurt. But, being a Dad, he spent much of his energy comforting her and downplaying his watery, swollen eye. She sat on his lap for a good hour after that, needing to be close to Dad.

In the afternoon, Eve and Matt broke down "gun safety" laws for the kids and we avoided any additional mishaps.

Adelaide sitting on Matt post-accident.

So happy with her clay kit

Mini Erasers!

Matching phone chargers!

Thanks Dad!

New exercise bike for Melinda.

Matt got some fitness equipment too.

The snack/lunch spread.

Snack break!

Nice dino truck dude

We carried Jefferson to the kitchen for

some playdough hair salon.

It wasn't hard to stay busy during the afternoon. There were plenty of new toys to play with and Christmas dinner to cook. It was an active, busy day with lots of laughter and good memories.