Christmas 2012

We had a very merry Christmas (Penn's first one!) on Tuesday.  We have fully adopted the Gagnon (my maiden name) tradition of drawing out Christmas morning as looooonnng as possible.  And I love it that way!  Doug has come to appreciate it (although gets a little impatient and rushy at times).  Amazingly, Koen is totally fine with it.  We must have been the only house in the city of Pittsburgh with a five-year-old who waited until 9:30am to start the present opening (you know, we've got to shower, eat, etc.) and then endured a 4 hour long process of one-by-one opening and enjoying presents, taking breaks for snacks, etc.  We were all so proud of him and thankful for the enjoyable morning we've all looked forward to for so long.  Here's a picture glance at our day...

Yummy French toast breakfast.

Penn Rye was pretty happy on his first Christmas morning.  

As the final preparations were made (clearing the table, doing dishes, wearing Penn out for his nap), we had some fun taking pictures.  I had to show off Penn's cute Christmas day sleeper...is that a reindeer on his bottom?

Aunt Abbie got a Christmas snuggle too.

Amazingly we got all 3 boys to pose with Aunt Abbie in front of their Christmas tree.  Having her here is something the boys relate to Christmas day.  She's a present herself!   These 3 just love her so much!

We got some sweet shots of Douglas with his big boys too.  

Ok, so finally at 9:30am we got the presents going.  It's become a tradition to take a picture of the boys opening their first present of the day.  This year their first presents were from Abbie, cute placemats.

Don't worry, I won't post pictures of every present being opened.  Just a few good captures to tell the story.  Like this one.  Koen got Lincoln Logs!

He's quite the builder.  He jumped right in and completed one of the buildings.

Abbie and I got identical presents from my brother, Phil.  It was such a thoughtful, sentimental gift.  He took a bunch of old records we used to listen to as children and through an amazing software program he transferred the recordings into mp3's and made us CD's with all the files.

I can't wait to share these songs with the boys.  Thanks, Phil.  It was such a surprise and so thoughtful!  Next we got to open our thoughtful presents from Koen.  He made 3 presents at school (just like the 3 gifts the wise men brought to baby Jesus).  The first was for Tavin.  It was a "boo boo bunny."  Koen made it out of a washcloth.  You put an ice cube in the middle for a friendly, cheery ice pack.  What a cute idea!

The second present was an ornament for Gramma and Grampa.

The third present was for me.  A decorated frame with a picture of Koen showing off some cool art he made at school.  

Koen and Tavin both got a toy from some sweet friends at North Way that wanted to bless them at Christmastime.  Koen got some Cars Legos sets and Tavin got Duplo Legos.  Tavin set right to work. 

Koen didn't waste any time either.  (Doug got his hands into the project too, Koen is impressive with these Lego sets, but he tends to speed through the instructions and get ahead of himself...Doug was policing that a little bit).

Tav got an exciting new construction vehicle from Gramma and Grampa.  A trencher.

I think he likes it!

Grampa got in on the action to help Tavin learn the different things the vehicle could do.

Gramma and Grampa also gave Tavin his first Bible.  For months now Tavin has been very interested in Koen's Bible and I often found him looking through it or asking to read it.  I had given my mom a heads up that this would be a special gift for them to give him.  He was so excited to receive it.  It happened to come with a little carrying bag and he was also thrilled about that.  He carries it all around the house.  So sweet!

Aunt Abbie gave the boys some silly Pirate Parrot puppets.  They were a huge hit!  And Penn enjoyed getting a puppet show from his big brothers!

My brother Phil waits until the last minute to get the boys' gifts.  He called just last week for ideas and I happened to know exactly what each would really enjoy (and I knew that they weren't getting it from Doug & I or Gramma & Grampa).  Turns out Uncle Phil might just be Santa Clause because they got exactly what they wished for!  Koen has been so into his Lego City Police helicopter since Uncle David gave it to him at Thanksgiving.  Thanks to Lego and their shameless advertisement of all the Lego City Police sets available in the packaging of the helicopter, Koen is well-versed in what else he could get.  I let Uncle Phil know and he totally came through.  Koen got a set with a cool police truck that pulls a trailer with a Zodiac-type motor boat on the back and it comes complete with a burglar trying to escape.  Koen was sooooo thrilled!

Koen opened that present at 12:45pm.  He did this set for the next 4 hours straight all on his own.  I'm thinking we should be stock in Legos because we are going to be investing in more sets I'm sure.  What a fantastic toy for a bright little guy!

Tavin's gift from Uncle Phil was based off of one of Tavin's favorite toys to play with at Kaiser's house.  Tavin has been talking about the Bruder crane his buddy, "Kai-Kai," has since early November.  He was pretty excited to open up his own crane in his own living room!

Thanks, Uncle Phil!  These should keep the boys busy for awhile!  And I love that they will be thinking of you when they play with these special gifts.  So, yes, this was at the winding down of our morning.  At 1:30pm my parents opened the final gift of the morning.  A panini press.  There's a story here.  A long one.  So I'll give you the super fast version.  Doug and I have had a panini press for 6 years now.  Every time my parents come they greatly enjoy the improvement it has on their sandwiches.  They eat sandwiches every day at home for lunch.  Finally we all realized that this would be a great addition to their kitchen as it has been for ours.  They had forgotten our intention to buy them one and they were pleasantly reminded/surprised.  So fun!

It was a fantastic Christmas morning.  We had a lot of fun watching the boys enjoy their gifts, break into some new things and play.  We all enjoy giving gifts and loved finally getting to see one another open gifts we had planned for awhile.   

Soon after the present-opening was complete Tavin and Penn laid down for their afternoon naps.  Koen was up all afternoon on the dining room floor working on the Legos.  Mom and I did a lot of picking up and organizing.  Douglas prepared our evening meal.  It was a warm, family afternoon.  After Penn's nap he needed a fresh outfit (huge Christmas blowout ruined the poor reindeer).  I had to take some pictures in his "ho ho ho" shirt.  So cute!

My little guys will always be my favorite Christmas gifts.  We are so blessed to have these lives in our home, hands and hearts.  They are tiring at times though and Christmas was a high energy day for sure.  After they were all in bed we adults really relaxed.  We had a Christmas movie on in the background, Abbie, Mom and I played Scrabble and laughed a lot, enjoyed great food and some yummy treats and just soaked up the last few hours of Christmas together.  What a great day!  Merry Christmas!