This was definitely my favorite Christmas yet, since being a little kid myself. Both of my children were finally old enough to understand the whole Santa thing and get excited about it. Rylee's imagination as she discussed Santa and the North Pole all month long, was just precious. She made me such a believer, I almost forgot I had a job to do Christmas Eve night.
We spent Christmas Eve day with my family at my aunt's house as we have done since I was a kid. We had a delicious lunch, opened presents, and enjoyed each other's company. My two favorite moments from the day, were my 5 1/2 year old niece's reaction to the "fake" glasses she got from Grandma (she's been asking for them for months!!). "I CAN SEE!!!", she said when she put them on. My other favorite moment was when myself, my husband, my brother and sister-in-law decided to show our kids that we used to dance to songs like "Bye Bye Bye". Being goofy was a lot of fun! I'm so glad we got it on video...my brother is a great dancer (wink, wink)!!! You can see the video on my Facebook page.
Around 4:30 that afternoon, Rylee learned about the Santa radar and saw that he was crossing the ocean to the United States. She started to excitedly panic that we needed to get home, QUICK! She had her coat and shoes on before the rest of us even knew what she was talking about. Once we finally left about an hour later, she watched the sky intently, looking for the sleigh. I remember doing that exact same thing on the way home from my aunt's house as a kid. Both Rylee and Wyatt fell asleep in the car by 6:00 and stayed asleep once we got home. I was worried about how early they would wake up in the morning.
After James and I had everything set up and went upstairs to go to bed, I decided we needed to block off the stairway, so the kids couldn't go down without us in the morning. I knew they would be very excited to see if Santa came and probably wouldn't even come into our room to get us....and their reaction is just something I did not want to miss!
 |
| Okay, so they easily could have gone through this, but I figured it would at least be a reminder for them to come get Mom and Dad first. |
She was delighted to see the presents, the full stockings, the empty cookie plate and milk glass. We played with her gifts from the day before while we waited for Wyatt. About 20 minutes later I heard him stirring. I went to his room and he sat up and asked, "Did Santa come?!"
By 6:30 we had all of the presents opened. Wyatt's reaction to all of them was priceless. He was very vocal as he opened each gift. Lots of "Wow!" and "I always wanted this!". All day long he told me, "Wasn't it so fun opening presents this morning?!?!?!"
Rylee, having not asked for much, liked all of her gifts too. She had a couple of very enthusiastic moments and remembered to say "Thank you" right after opening each gift (she even thanked Santa for his gifts).
Last year, I can recall that the kids didn't really care about their gifts about 30 minutes after opening them. This year though, the toys were played with all day and are continuing to be played with today. Yay!! We got 3 new games from Santa, for the family. They are all active games that require you to get up and move. We've played each one multiple times...that was probably the best gift! It was nice to have new things to do together as a family. I even laughed so hard, I cried during one game!
 |
| Pancake Pile-up is a pretty fun game for young kids (and their parents too)! |
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas too!
No comments:
Post a Comment