Christmas Day

And now back to our regularly scheduled progam.

If I could bottle up how nice, pleasant, and charming our children were on Christmas morning and pour some in their milk every day for breakfast, I would have the easiest job in the world. They helped each other, spoke kindly, laughed at each other's jokes, waited respectfully . . . it was awesome and odd at the same time.

I'd take more of that any day.

Well, Cameron woke up first and went into Mary's room. They played for a while together, and then they went into Tyce's room, where Tyce read to them. That pretty much melted my heart. Then they came to get Harrison from the side of my bed. Pretty soon they gathered at the top of the stairs, where we said our family prayer. Bryce and I went down first so we could get some pictures.

Santa brought some nice stocking gifts, including jingle bell necklaces and packs of cheese and crackers. He also brought a Ripstick for Tyce, a Razor scooter for Harrison (so he and Mary don't have to fight over hers anymore), and a twist car for Cameron. (That twist car is cool! No batteries, no pedals, just steering.)

Unfortunately it rained on Christmas day.

So our hallways became the Indie 500.

Miss Mary got a mask-making kit, which was at the top of her wish list. (These are actually bubbles; the mask picture was too blurry.)

Santa also replaced the usual orange at the toe of the stocking with a lovely pomegranate.

Note to self: never do that again.

(Remember that the stain remover worked well on the carpet, but neither the kitchen cabinets nor the walls fared as well.)

Well, we ate breakfast (cinnamon rolls, sausages, and oranges). I am getting wicked good at making cinnamon rolls.

After that we went to the Christmas tree. The kids got a blanket to sit on and they opened their gifts. They get three from us, because Jesus got three gifts from the Wise Men. One is gold: the thing they really want; one is frankincense: something practical (like a new backpack, alarm clock, or clothes); and one is myrrh: something enriching or educational (like a puzzle, a fun how-to book, tickets to an event, or the promise of time spent together doing an activity. I gave M. "12 Days of Baking" with a cookie cutter and some hot pads, with a note saying I'd bake with her every month this year.).

Of course they get awesome gifts from grandparents and aunts/uncles too, so there is a wonderful variety of gifts for the children to open.

I took a million pictures but here are just a few.

They loved all their gifts, both the things people picked out for them, and "spending power" in the form of cash!

It was great morning.

In the late afternoon we invited the Shapiros over with their 5 kids. The kids all showed off their loot, and the adults talked and played games. I wouldn't say it was relaxing with 9 children running around, but it sure was fun!