Christmas Day 2009

We told the kids 7:30 but we were tired and didn’t make it over to their ‘wing’ until 7:50.  They were following the strict instructions to stay until we came over.  Ryan and Katie were up and pacing the floor.  The rest of them were asleep.  Dad woke them up and led them all one at a time past the family room into our room covering their eyes along the way.  We brushed hair, brushed teeth, woke and changed Matthew and said family prayer.  During the brushing hair part and with all the talking and excitement no one realized Luke had escaped.  “Mom, where’s Luke?”  Chris ran out to the family room and found him playing with his present from Santa.  Laughing, Chris scooped him up and brought him back in the room.  He was pretty ticked, but when he got back in the room with us, we excitedly asked, “Luke, Did Santa bring you a toy?”  He started jumping up and down.  “Ya!”  The kids asked him what was out there and thought they heard him say a sentence ending with ‘Choo choo’. 

After a line up picture in the hall we ran out.  Sure enough, Luke got a ‘choo choo’  GeoTrax train set.  So did Matthew.  Megan got a doll stroller, Emily got a bike, Katie got Legos and Ryan got a backpack and sleeping bag.  In our stockings we all got BYU football Pez, gift cards to Barnes and Noble,and M&M candy canes.  The girls got American Girl shirts and had a stuffed lion, cheetah, and tiger hanging out of the top.  The little boys got more animals and little Toy Story figurines.  Ryan got more camping stuff.  I got socks, perfume and bath and body stuff.  Chris got socks and more socks. 

The kids were thrilled with their Santa presents.  Ryan liked his backpack but was just as excited about the little boys train sets.  Within minutes he had them connected together to make one big set and was showing Luke exactly what to do.   A big boy to help with all the set up for the little boys.  Santa is so smart.  The girls were so excited about the stuffed animals hanging out of their stockings and spent the next half hour cuddling and naming them.

After enjoying our Santa presents and stockings for a while we paused to make breakfast. Sausage, potatoes, scrambled eggs and cheese all mixed together.  When we were done we settled back in the family room to start opening presents.  Ryan grabbed a small one from the tree and handed it to us.  “This has to be the first present of the day.” he said.  The girls opened the small box to find our little fabric baby Jesus with a note that said, “Remember the real meaning of Christmas”.  He is a sweet boy.  Our opening present tradition is that we take turns picking a present under the tree but you can’t pick one for yourself.  The kids get so excited about picking the presents that they bought or picked out for each other.  We took our time, opening one present at a time, giving thank you hugs, and even taking several breaks to just play.  When we finished opening at 3:00, the room was a disaster.  We left the mess, and Chris and I took a nap while the kids got out the legos, played with the train set and watched the movie ‘UP’ all at the same time.   When Chris and I woke up we ate leftovers of our fancy Christmas Eve dinner and straightened up the family room.  Later that night we skyped our families and opened up their presents.  It was SUCH A GOOD DAY!