Christmas Morning Part I

Once the kids were in bed, Santa and his little elves got down to business. Ever one to include others, we even enlisted my mom and little brother to join Team Santa for the evening and had them help us wrap gifts. This elf went to bed shortly after one, leaving ol' Santa Claus out in the shed to fend for himself. I am not quite sure how long Nate spent out in the shed working on refurbishing my little old rocking chair for Miss Bryn. Before I went to bed, I snapped this picture of the Christmas tree. I wanted to get a good shot before all the packages were open, covering my floor with bit of wrapping paper and bows. 

Christmas morning came way too fast as it always does when you stay up late wrapping presents and finishing last minute projects. Every year I vow to be better prepared, so that I might actually get a good night's sleep. And yet every year, I let myself procrastinate and then end up working until the wee hours of dawn trying to finish everything. Maybe someday I will change my ways, although it seems highly unlikely.

Over the years, Nate has taken it upon himself to do the Christmas stockings. I typically will find a few things for the kids, but the majority of the stocking's contents are thought up by Nate. Most of the stuff is what him and his brothers would receive in their stockings when they were kids. There are certain things like oranges and marshmallow Santas that brings back a sense of nostalgia for him. Who knew that Nate was such a sentimental guy? : )

Now on any given morning, trying to get Nate out of bed is almost like trying to wake the dead. What can I say, the man could sleep through a zombie apocalypse. The only exception would be Christmas morning. It is the one day of the year, where Nate is up at the crack of dawn, and can't understand why everyone else could possible still be sleeping. Given that my kids are solid sleepers until at least 8 AM, I didn't understand what the rush was all about, but I got up too just so I wouldn't be accused of being a grinch. Come to find out, Hudson had been up for a little while and used his charms to convince Grandma to let him out of his crib. Out in the living room, Hudson was completely oblivious to his surroundings. He was perfectly content playing with an old toy and soaking up all the attention from Grandad and Grandma Steph.

And then, this is how we found Bryn, completely and utterly passed out (she gets her sleeping habits from her father). At 8:30, Nate was itching to open up some presents and the anticipation became too great for him, so he went in to wake her up. Let's just say she wasn't exactly thrilled to be woken up.

Bryn walked out of her room and came face to face with a pile of Christmas presents, a blue rocking chair just her size, and a bunch of crazy people screaming "Merry Christmas!" all while snapping pictures. To be honest, if I was her, I would have been completely bewildered and slightly concerned as well.

The first thing she laid eyes on was her "Little Pooh Bear" that was hanging out of her stocking. This was "The Gift" she had asked Santa Claus for and, sure enough, the good ol' boy delivered. After some gentle prodding, she realized that there was more stuff in her stocking. The next things she pulled out was a book which of course she made Grandma Steph read immediately. It had been nearly ten minutes since the Christmas Extravaganza had begun, and we hadn't even made it passed the stockings. I took one look at Nate, who turned to me and said, "This is going take awhile."

Hudson also found a new fury friend in his stocking. Pluto has a nice long tail and two floppy ears that were made especially for chewing and sucking on. He also received a book in his stocking, which Brynlee promptly stole and then asked Grandma Steph to read it to her. Hudson liked his stuff, but then realized that there were even better things than stuffed animals and books in the stocking. There were treats were in there too, lots of treats. Now we were speaking his language.

We had a great Christmas. Hudson received an amazing train track which is a little advanced for him now, but it was so cute that we couldn't pass it up. Nate and I are obsessed with the "old school" toys and when we happened to stumble across this little gem, we knew we had to get it. We found one of those old rotary phones on wheels. Hudson was a little perplexed, but after Nate showed him how it worked, he spent the rest of the morning racking up a huge phone bill calling all his girlfriends. The funny thing is, that by the time Hudson is a teenager, nobody will even know what a "rotary phone" is.

Bryn got lots of great toys and clothes, but she spent most of the morning rocking in her chair while holding her Baby Pooh Bear. Nate picked out most of his stuff this year, including his xbox games and hunting paraphernalia. I also had picked out most of my presents, but was surprised to find that Nate had bought me a new pair of shoes. You can always count on Nate to have a few surprises up his sleeve on Christmas morning.

Seeing how we were the ones hosting Christmas at our house, we made sure our guests had stockings and gifts too. My dad was super excited about his new hunting device Nate had picked out. I don't even know what it is called, but Nate and my Dad talked about it for a good 15 minutes which I thought was a good sign. And of course, my mom got her calendar. Granted a couple months were missing seeing how I didn't plan for enough time to finish it all. But my mom assured me that she would help me finish it. Does that make it any less special that she has to help construct her own Christmas present? I am going to say no.

After some hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, Nate and I packed the kids into the car and headed over to the Burk's for Christmas Morning Part 2.