At our house (an adopted Gagnon house tradition) we start our Christmas morning slowly. The boys stayed in their rooms until 8am as usual. Doug and I got showered before that and then we all headed down to breakfast. Soon Gramma and Grampa appeared all showered and ready to go and later Abbie too. After we had all eaten, we settled down into the living room to get started on presents (not soon enough for Doug's sake, but after 10 years, he's used to this routine and adopted it pretty well). It was about 9am or so before we started unwrapping presents. First though, I like to take a few minutes to make sure we remind ourselves and the boys about what this day is really about. So, Douglas read us the Christmas story from a beautiful book we were given when Tav was born a few Christmases ago. Koen was patient and participated in the story even though he was so excited to see what the presents were that had been laying under the tree for days and increasing in number each morning!
So, here we go. The first present. Look at Tavin trying to learn how to even attempt opening his by watching brother's technique.
The first present was sippy cups. It was so cute. We didn't want to give all the toys first because we wanted the boys to get into it a little before we distracted them with toy presents. Koen was such a good sport and was so excited about the cups and then Tavin followed right along. Koen had a really great attitude the whole morning about a present big or small, toy or not. It was a really neat improvement to see versus last year (very toy-minded and a little snotty about it last year!).Koen not only enjoyed opening his presents, but he helped everyone else open theirs as well (we go by one-by-one so every person gets a turn, then we start all over again, a long wait for a 4 year old).
We tried to time it so that the boys both had a present to open at each turn. It was so cute because every time Koen was opening a present he was also anxious to see what his brother got. As you can see that even just a few more presents in, Tav is getting the hang of how to rip into the wrapping paper.
I had to comment on this picture. The present is a puzzle of the United States. Again, we were holding off the big, exciting stuff a little longer and Koen's attitude was fantastic. He made every present exciting. He kept saying, "Mommy, I'm so thankful for this present." No matter what it was. Such a relief that he enjoyed every little thing and not just the big, toy things this year.
Like I said, Koen wanted to help everyone...Gramma...
Aunt Abbie...
Daddy...(this was Koen's homemade candle holder he made at nursery school, Doug's a good daddy, you would've thought this was his favorite gift)...
Tavin, although good at following his brother's lead with how to open presents, was a little perplexed and put off by a morning of everyone sitting around the living room making a mess and saying, "ooh, ahh." He asked for his blanket about 3 presents in and we gave in (because, hey, it's Christmas, why not?) and he was quite the snuggle bug. Here he is with Gramma.
In my surge of crafty creativeness (well, for me), I had come up with an idea for Koen to make cardboard frames with a picture of he and Tav in it. One for Gramma and Grampa and one for Aunt Abbie. He painted the frame and helped me cut out the cardboard and he was the master gluer getting the picture in and the frame pieces together. It was a fun project and a big hit with the receivers, they made a nice deal about how great the artwork was and Koen was very pleased with himself (ok, I was too since it was my idea).
Mr. Christmas Morning himself. Doug is such a little kid at heart on Christmas morning and such a trooper to do it the Gagnon way every year (he actually appreciates quite a lot of the traditions, but our slow pace really gets to him by about 11am!).
Douglas loves to give presents. I'm not necessarily great at receiving them. My practical nature can really be a party pooper on Christmas morning. There have been quite a few returns the week after Christmas over the years. This year, Doug did quite well though staying in the practical realm (one of my love languages I guess) and he also totally surprised me with remembering something I wanted that even I had forgotten about. I knew there was a large frame sitting under the tree with my name on it and honestly I was quite nervous about it. I figured it was something I wouldn't really want to hang up because I didn't have a spot for it or it wouldn't match or something and then it would hurt Doug's feelings to return it. Well, he totally surprised me.
As you can see by my crazy eyebrows! Anyways, the frame was a print of art that I just love and saw last Spring at an auction. It's a map of Pittsburgh with all the neighborhoods of Pittsburgh written in text and arranged so that the letters basically make up the drawing of the city. Very creative, simplistic and original. I am so excited to hang it! Thanks, Douglas! So impressed you remembered!
Eventually we got Tavin and Koen into the toy gifts as they needed some more distractions as the time went on (I love making Christmas morning last as long as possible!). We had them open the toys we got them. A set of 6 noisy work trucks for Tavin and a Marble Run for Koen.
Since Koen has never seen or used a Marble Run, he was way more into Tavin's gift and kept telling us that because there were so many trucks Tavin had to share and the gift was for both of them.
We said that we would encourage sharing, but that no, these trucks were not for Koen. (Poor Tav barely has anything that has been originally his, so I wasn't going to let Koen take these trucks from him!). Tavin is used to surrendering quite a bit to his brother and he is happy to do so as long as he is left with something good to play with, so the boys did play with the trucks together (loudly) for the next few rounds of present opening.
Koen was so cute about his present from Abbie. He is really into crafts right now and Abbie got him a stamp and colored pencil set. He was really excited about it (although did tell her they could try it later).
Soon after that Koen opened his present from Grampa. If you don't remember, Koen and my Dad have made quite a bit of progress on Koen's biking skills this Fall/Winter. On that note, my Dad got him a bell for his bike. Look how excited Koen was to open the gift! He's literally jumping up and down!!
Christmas presents are a lot of fun, but it's just the simple things in life too that can be fun. Koen found some bubble wrap from one of the presents and taught Tav how to jump up and down on it to pop the bubbles. Why did we even go shopping again?
Later on Koen and Tavin opened their toy gifts from Gramma and Grampa. Tavin is unwrapping a shopping cart (with brother eyeing up every move just in case yet again Tav's present is more fun than his). Koen is opening Legos.
Tavin was so cute because even though he can't really talk yet completely, he totally knew what this was as he opened it and he was spouting all sorts of jibberish in excitement.
We got to work on it as quickly as possible to get it up and running and Tav was off! As you can see, Koen isn't doting around Tavin this time because he was already building a Lego house. =)
The last toy presents we saved for almost the end of the unwrapping time. They were from Uncle Phil and Aunt Leah. My brother had told me what they had ordered for the boys and I was impressed at how well Phil had done picking out such age-appropriate, fun little boy toys. Even though I predicted that Koen and Tavin would be happy with them, I couldn't have predicted Koen's excitement over his gift. Again, jumping up and down!
Phil and Leah got Koen a Hess truck. My brother had one when he was little. Our friend, Lisa, who used to watch Koen once a week has a son and he had Hess trucks. Koen remembered playing with them and said, "I've always wanted one of these!"
Tavin was also excited about his well-chosen gift, the Fisher Price Little People airplane. That was more of a challenge to quickly get out of the box (they tie down and plastic clamp pretty much every inch of this toy in the box!). But once we freed it from its packaging, Tavin was off and flying!
I tried to get some "thank you" pictures for Phil with Koen looking up as he was so intent on just driving the truck around at floor level. This is as good as we got and it looks like he's in pain because he really actually wants to be playing with the truck. =)
That sums up the pictures that were worth sharing from our Christmas morning. Thanks to all the gift-givers, we certainly feel blessed, even spoiled from all the thoughtful and fun gifts. Even more so though, it was great to have family there and enjoy the boys amidst the Christmas excitement. I love Christmas! After presents Doug set to work on lunch of leftover ham (from the Christmas Eve meal the day before) sandwiches and soup. The boys played with their toys. Grampa and Koen also spent some time outside practicing skills on the bike and mounting it with the new bell of course. Eventually it got to naptime and mom and I took a walk and then we all relaxed for awhile. Around 4pm Cookie and Corey (remember the wedding Koen was the ringbearer in?) arrived to hang out and have dinner. It was fun to have a full house and again watch the boys enjoy their new distractions. Koen got into his stamps and pencils from Aunt Abbie.
And Doug and Koen (and Tavin, the little helper) got into the Marble Run after dinner. Here they are the following morning working on it together. Koen really enjoys it, so I'm happy since it was quite the bummer that he was so disinterested in it Christmas morning.
It was such a great Christmas. Hard to really let it go. Well, after three days of trying to type up this post, I think it's time to bid farewell to Christmas 2011 and set my sights on 2012.
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