Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

This was our first year without having several places to be on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We were able to just lay around, enjoy each other and all our gifts. It was nice.

Christmas Eve the kids and I baked off and on all day. We did a gingerbread house (from a box), cooked a gingerbread boys and made other treats for Santa. The kids loved helping me in the kitchen and getting to decorate all the goodies. The later it got, the more excited the kids got. Finally, the kids had enough and started asking to go to bed so that Santa could come. So after reading about the birth of Jesus, reading The Night Before Christmas and seeing where Santa was at on the map they kids rushed to bed. It took them a while to finally go to sleep. While the kids were in bed Kent and I opened presents from each other. Kent got me a Wii with all the trimmings and a Wii Fit. He also got me a Pea coat. I got him a North Face jacket, some undies, 2 shirts and $50 giftcard to Best Buy. Kent then hooked up the Wii and we played for a bit. Then it was time to set out the presents from Santa and go to bed ourselves.

Around 1am Zoey sneaks into our room (which she does nightly) and climbed into bed. She told me that she saw that Santa had come! I told her she would have to wait until everyone else was up to open the presents. So she fell back asleep in our bed. Around 5:45am Jon Kent and Nathan woke up at the same time. So once they both got in the bed Zoey woke up and so it was time to see what Santa had brought. The kids were thrilled to see that Santa had eaten all the cookies and drank all the milk. AND he even left them a thank you note. Once the kids got the go ahead (and I got my camera) they tore into their gifts. Nathan needed a little help from his daddy... The kids got all that they asked for and a few extras. They were just thrilled and it was so great to see their excitement. This was the first year that the kids have really grasped the whole Santa thing and it was a blast to play along and relive my own childhood memories.