Melder Family Blog: Christmas Day 2015

Christmas Day was a lot of fun. Our first one with four boys. Very special. Our day started with stockings, then breakfast, then presents, then lunch, then play, play, play, then dinner, a little more play, then bed. Here are the pictures to add to the story...

Tavin helping with breakfast...omelette, pumpkin bread, yogurt and granola.

The four Melder boys opening their stockings.

How did this kid get so old? Eight Christmases now. Look at that smile.

Grampa with Jansen...don't forget, it's Jansen's first Christmas!

Fantastic stocking reactions from Penn Rye.

Attempts at a picture under the Christmas tree with all 4 boys. Each one has it's own issues!

Jansen's first gift. Koen was dying to give it to him. So all the boys had to wait and let Jansen get the first present. I'm telling you, this relationship is a special one.

Homemade Kindergarten gifts from Tavin to Aunt Abbie and Uncle Zac. Tav was so proud!

Jansen's second gift before naptime (I think that was all his gifts...gotta make the most of the fact he has no clue and doesn't really need anything!).

Special gifts sent up from Florida from Uncle Phil, Aunt Leah and their kids.

My brother made a special gift for my Dad. He took an old picture of my Dad with him and then mimicked the same picture with his baby boy. It was a great surprise and such a special gesture. Good job, Phil! You got the tears going!

My Dad noticed how much the family enjoyed a new puzzle at Thanksgiving, he thought he would do a little shopping for some more puzzles for this holiday. But being the engineer that he is, he had to incorporate solving a problem I had identified...we loved working on a puzzle together, but I cannot give up my dining room table for days on end!! Well, Grampa came up with a great solution. He made a workspace board. It is perfect!! We can keep it on the table and have a craft going in there, a puzzle, a Lego project, whatever, but at dinnertime, I can just slide it under the couch or set it on the coffeetable to get it out of the way. Ingenious!

Abbie had a special painting done by a friend as a surprise for Zac, it's his doggie, Pickle. =)

Koen's favorite present was an organizer case for his Rainbow Loom supplies. He jumped right into organizing. Yep, that's my boy.

Penn got an Olaf from Gramma and Grampa. Action shot of his excitement when he pulled him out of the bag!

Penn got several Play Doh toys (one from us, one from Tav and some new Play Doh itself from Janse). Tavin and Penn got busy with them right after lunch. Big hit!

Tavin and Koen both got some snap and build model planes and they got to build those in the afternoon. Tav had opened that present first and had been asking all morning to get started.