Christmas Day 2014

Yay!  It's Christmas!  I love getting up before the kids and setting up for the day.  And my favorite is taking in the tree, with the lights, the presents bulging beneath...the anticipation just shimmers.

Our Christmas morning is what you would call "slow-paced" as American family Christmases go.  My goal is to stretch it out and savor the gift-giving, the fun of the day and the time with my family.  The boys don't know any different, so they do very well with the slow approach (which impresses us every year).  The boys came down for breakfast as usual at 8am.  As the final preparations were going on in the kitchen, Grampa sat down to the piano to play a few Christmas carols.  Perfect.  The boys (especially Penn) were his audience.

Before breakfast we do stockings.  I don't put a lot in the stockings, but it definitely helps the boy get out some of their pent-up need to tear into some presents after all the anticipation of this day.  Next year I need to do a better job of remembering the size of the stockings so everything fits in as a few items only fit halfway down.  Oops!

The boys smooshed in together and dove right in.  They opened each present individually, but I let them open at the same time at this point (see, later, they mostly open one at a time...notice it's all part of my strategy of dragging it out as long as possible!).  

Penn had no idea why this was all was happening, but was delighted to tear wrapping paper off of items he recognized and enjoyed (Play-Doh and Band-Aids).

Actually, one of Penn's favorite things all day was unwrapping his gifts small piece of wrapping paper by small piece of wrapping paper and taking the time to chuck them on the floor one by one.  I think he was on to my plan because his gift-unwrapping technique took a lot of time!

This one he was excited about the inside of the wrap job...Frozen Band-Aids...he just loves Anna and Olaf!! 

After the fun of the stockings, we had a delicious breakfast of pumpkin mini muffins that taste like donuts (here's the recipe, you have to try them!) and a yummy omelette Doug made.  Then there was the cleanup, getting Tav in an outfit, and final prep before present opening.  Don't you agree it's nicer to unwrap gifts when all the dishes are clean?  Well, ok, I think it's nice. =)  Around 9:15am we got started on presents.  The boys first wanted to give each other the presents they had purchased (with their own money) for each other.  So sweet!  Here's Tav opening his...

This face doesn't show it, but he LOVED the helicopter from Planes 2.  He's just concentrating on seeing how it works.  

Then it was Koen's turn.  Tav gave him Pokemon cards because he plays them/the game (we aren't exactly sure how it all works) with friends on the bus to and from school, but lost most of his cards in the wash/dryer recently!  

Penn wasn't getting a lot of gifts (because he didn't need much, plus he's little enough to totally not notice!), so he was the adults' big unwrap-it helper.  Here he is helping Gramma (open the gift from him, a "teeny, tiny spatula").

Then he helped me open a present that Koen has been saving since this summer.  When we were in NH, Koen collected all sorts of pretty, mostly white rocks from my favorite beaches.  He kept it a secret (in a bucket in the back of his closet) for all these months and remembered to wrap them for my Christmas gift.  He was so proud and excited to give them to me.  It was precious.

Later, Koen and Tavin opened a present from Nana and PopPop that had arrived in the mail awhile ago.  They know how the boys love to build planes out of just about anything, so they got them a build-your-own airplane model set.  This will be great for keeping busy on wintry days.  Thanks, Nana & PopPop!

Yet again, Penn was my right hand man in taking the Christmas morning slow.  He received a book from Gramma and Grampa and of course we had to read it right away.  Perfect!  Not to mention, it just melts my heart to see him snuggled up to my Dad.

After awhile it was Penn's turn again and this time he opened his gift from Uncle Phil and Aunt Leah.  Sorry about all the pictures, but he's so cute and Phil & Leah need to see their happy gift-receiver.

He's pretty happy with "Philbin," Uncle Phil & Aunt Leah.  Kisses for his new bear buddy!

Next, the big boys opened one of their joint presents from Uncle Phil & Aunt Leah.  It was a big hit!  They were so excited about the item and Koen especially was super excited that he and Tav got to work on it together.  He loves to jump into leader mode and teach Tav something new!

After another break or two for coffee refills, snacks (those mini donuts slowly diminished as the morning wore on) and bathroom breaks we got to Tav giving Doug his preschool-prepared handmade gifts.  He proclaimed that everything he made this year was for Doug.  Doug was hilarious opening up the sweet gifts.  They are certainly one-of-a-kind creations.  Good job, Tav!  Thanks for thinking so much of your Daddy and being so generous!

The card was to both of us.  It was a combo of real writing and scribble writing.  Tav was so proud.  He read what it said and said, "yeah, that's my writing."  So sweet.

After awhile, I gave Koen and Tavin their identical gifts from Doug and I...sleeping bags!  It was probably the biggest surprise gift for us on the giving end.  We had no idea how excited the boys would be about them.  They crawled right inside and hung out in there for several minutes (which was a nice quiet break after all the excitement and bounding around that had been happening all morning.  I think they enjoyed the rest too!).

One thing that was a little different this year is that Aunt Abbie is usually here with us and this year, she and her husband, Zac, went to Hawaii!  We were super happy for her, but obviously missed her very much since she's a usual part of our Christmas celebrations.  She was super thoughtful amidst her demanding December schedule and sent sweet gifts to all of us.  Particularly she made a beautiful photo book for Mom and Dad exhibiting the wedding photos.  They enjoyed it so much.  Great job, Ab, it was a hit!

The boys were super happy to see Aunt Abbie (Penn says her name perfectly now and he loved pointing her out in every picture!).

Uncle Phil sent a special present to Dad.  A new cover for his Corvette.  Dad didn't have a clue, so it was fun to see his reaction.  I tried to catch his happy surprise for you, Phil!

Koen and Tavin had been dying to give the present they picked out for Penn all morning.  But since Penn was so content without many presents, we saved it until closer to the end when he was tiring of just watching and roaming around.  Just as we suspected, it was a big hit.  Good job, Koen and Tavin, you are such sweet brothers to so happily give good gifts to your little bro.

Doug and I had fun giving the boys some Lego sets to add to their collections (Tav is just starting, so that was really fun).  They were definitely pleased!

The boys finished up their present opening with a cool present to both of them from Uncle Phil.  A book that outlines Uncle Phil's jet, the Eagle.  Pretty special!  The boys are both excited to dive in and check out all the details. There are diagrams and descriptions about everything.  Just what they needed to quench their curiosity about this cool job Uncle Phil has!

One of the last presents of the morning (well, when it was all said and done it was about 12:30pm), was a photo book I had made for my Dad.  It was a little ode to the sailboat he had owned for the past 3 decades or so that previously had been his father's, The Maranatha.  This past Fall he sold it and although it was most definitely the right decision at this point, I knew it was hard to say goodbye to such a meaningful token of so much of what my Dad loves in life.  So, I thought a photo book might be a nice way to capture just a token of the memories the boat provided all of us who enjoyed it.  It definitely struck a cord with Dad and I was thrilled he enjoyed it so much.  I love you, Daddy!

Well, that's it for pictures of present opening.  Sorry for so many, but we had so many thanks to document along the way from family near and far, it was necessary to show the pictures. =)  After opening presents, we had a fun, snacky lunch.  Then the little guys slept the afternoon away (well, I think Dad and Doug both caught a cat nap at some point too).  Mom and I did some meal preparations and organizing after the morning's fun.  Koen hung out with us adults for the afternoon as usual, doing his thing.  Again, it was just nice to be together all under the same roof.  After the little guys got up and had a blast playing upstairs with Grampa, it was time for our delicious Christmas dinner.  Here's a shot of most of the family around the table ready to dig in!  It was so good!

Last year was our first time doing a big turkey dinner to close our Christmas Day.  I was totally against it because I figured it would be a lot of work on such a special day.  But what I found last year was that with Mom, Doug and I working on aspects of the meal and the fact it was the evening, it wasn't too much work for anyone.  Then, it gave us all something to look forward to after the hype of the exciting morning was over.  The point was only further proven this year.  Our time around the table was a great extension of our day together and a wonderful end to a wonderful day.  Thank you to Gramma and Grampa for making the trek to be here to make our Christmas extra special.  And thanks so much to all those loved ones who sent gifts our way to be remembered to us today.  We have so much to be thankful for and reflected on so much of that on this day.  Merry Christmas everyone!  Love, The Melders