Christmas Day 09

Sorry for so many pictures. Since our blog becomes our family history book, it's hard to pass up pictures to include (my lazy way of scrapbooking).

Our tree after Santa's visit.

A night shot. Christmas tree lights at night are one of my favorite things. There's something so peaceful about it.

Christmas morning. We move the stockings to our bedroom so we don't miss out on the opening of them. Santa comes upstairs to fill them.

I made everyone line up for a group shot before I would allow anyone to open their stockings. How mean a mom am I? Before you answer, just wait. It gets worse!

My kids are so used to posing for pictures, I don't even have to say any more than their name now. I have them so well trained! They know that when Mom has the camera, a called name means freeze mid-action, pose, and smile convincingly into the camera. See?

I'm still training this one on what it means to "smile". This is his interpretation of it.

Grandma was excited when Santa brought her a lovely new serving spoon. We wrote to him and told him how frusterating it was to serve say, lasagna, with a tiny spoon. Love that Santa guy!

I'll show him for making funny faces at my camera! I'll post it! (Scott flunked my training course on appropriate camera faces.)

The twins were all about the candy. Toothbrushes, schmoothbrushes.

A quick word about the cereal boxes...when I was little, a Christmas tradition in my family was that all seven of us got to choose our own cereal from the grocery store. In a family with seven kids, that was a huge deal! I'd salivate over the Trix every trip to the grocery store, and finally, just before Christmas, I'd get to buy my own box, not to be shared with anyone, involuntarily. We all always got the same kind year after year. My kids still look forward to this tradition, although not with quite as much gusto as I did. When Cheerios and shredded wheat are what you're used to, anything with sugar in it was something to get excited about. I enjoy seeing what cereal strikes each child's fancy, when they are given the choice of anything on the shelves, something that doesn't happen more than once a year in our house either. This year Brighton chose Trix (maybe it runs in the genes?), Savannah and Irelynd chose Reeses (yuck!), and I chose Honeycomb, another childhood favorite.

I like to take pictures of my food. Is that weird? This is what we had for breakfast: little smokies (a family favorite, but oh-so-fattening!), cranberry-orange pull apart rolls (love these!), and fruit salad. Which, by the way, can I just say that pomegranate is my new favorite fruit? I never knew these little guys were so tasty! They just pop in your mouth like little firecrackers of sweetness!

The face of anticipation... Ok, if you didn't think I was mean before, you will now. I made my kids wait til after breakfast to open the tree. It was a good 45 minutes before we got to it. My parents used to drag out the anticipation, too. Don't you think that's the best part of gift opening though? More enjoyable than the actual opening? Wondering if Santa brought you your heart's desires? My kids didn't agree. Neither did their father. Oh well.

"forget opening them, Mom. Can we climb them?"

Brighton got his forklift! Every time someone asked Brighton what he wanted for Christmas, they'd come to me afterwards and say, "Brighton wants a footrest for Christmas?" with a tone that says, "your kid is really odd and he may as well be asking for a stick!" No, he said forklift, but he didn't say it very well. Good thing Santa understands 3-yr-old gibberish! By the way, do you have any idea how hard it is to find a forklift toy? Not easy!! Good thing also that Santa has a connection with Walmart and found one there!

Savannah got her an LPSO!

Waverly learned to hug today and Keaton was her favorite practice body. She'd say "hud, hud" and come up and gently wrap her arms around him. After about 10 times of this he started to push her away. Twins are so fun!

My favorite boys. I worked to get all their jammies matching colors, so of course I had to document that! Scott's do match in person.

Up too late. Good thing he got a new down pillow from my mom, which he has since asked me every night after Christmas how he ever lived without a down pillow before.

A new set of wheels. Look out Molly! You're about to become a speed bump! Waverly's Christmas bounty is behind.

One for Keaton, as well as his intake.

Brighton's loot. The bouncy ball has since been the most used gift. Don't you just wish they made these for adults? I always loved these things!

Irelynd was most excited about her art supplies. And her snuggie.

Savannah loved most her LPSO and her MP3 player. And her Snuggie.

I can't believe I'm posting a no-makeup photo, but here I am in all my unpainted glory. My favorite gifts were my cupcake book, jewellery, tablecloth that actually fits my table!, and a new pitcher and glasses set from my mom.

I'm not sure what Scott's favorite gift was. Maybe the DIY vasectomy kit? Just kidding!

All set for Christmas dinner with Scott's family.

The adult table...

...and the kids.
It was such a wonderful Christmas. It was such a peaceful day in our home...the first in a long long time. No one complained, fought, argued, threw a tantrum, yelled, or whined. That was the best gift I got that day. It made me realize that I do want to have my children with me for eternity. I'm grateful for the miracle that occured in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago that makes that possible.