This year was not our best photographically documented Christmas. But it was a very good Christmas, I just decided to sit back and enjoy it, instead of frantically trying to capture it all on camera.
Our kids gave us the gift of sleeping until 8:00am. Yay! Then they waited patiently at the top of the stairs until Aaron gave the ok to go down.
We open stockings first, and then the kids get to play with that stuff while Aaron and I get breakfast ready. This year the kids each got a small Lego set, and they worked on putting those together.
Aaron made scrambled eggs, toast, and the traditional Tapioca Pudding, while I nursed Ruby.
Ivan found the almond in his pudding this year, so he got to be the present passer-outer. We decided to try something a bit different this year, with the hopes of keeping the focus more on giving and less on getting. Ivan passed out presents according to who they were from, instead of who they were to. So, all the presents from Lincoln got piled up by Lincoln, and so on. Then we went around the circle one at a time and the person whose turn it was got to pick a present from their pile to give to someone else. For example, on Lincoln's turn, he might pick to give Adelia the present that was from him. And we went around and around until all the presents had been opened. It was glorious, because the kids really were excited to watch each other open things they'd given each other, AND it made Christmas morning last so much longer, instead of all being over in a whirl-wind of flying wrapping paper. I loved it. I think we'll do it this way again next year.
Another thing I loved about Christmas this year, was that we had the kids do jobs to earn money to buy each other presents. Aaron and I made a list of jobs we felt were worth $1, then the kids chose which job they wanted to do, they earned a dollar, and then Aaron or I took them to the dollar store, or the dollar bin at Target or whatever, and let them pick out something to give to one of their siblings. It was really cool. They kids were a) willing to help out with chores throughout December b) very creative and thoughtful about how they wanted to spend their dollars on each other, and c) excited to watch each other open presents on Christmas morning. It was a win-win all around. I think we'll do that again next year too.
Anyways, without further ado, here are the pictures of Christmas day:
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| Lincoln's wish came true, he got a robot arm. He and Aaron spent a lot of the day putting it together. |
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| Ollie was thrilled with his "truck". |
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| Meet Hemi and Stretch, Ivan's new pet rats |
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| Rue slept through most of her first Christmas. |
We went to Aaron's parents' house for a wonderful Christmas dinner, and enjoyed the time that we got to spend there with family. Again, I didn't take any pictures. Sorry.
Merry Christmas one and all!
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