Christmas 2009 Part 2

We left Mel's on Christmas Eve and got to my mom's house in Richmond around 11:30 p.m. In order to bring beds for both kids, clothes for all four of us, and everyones Christmas gifts we'd had to stuff both our cars to full capacity. Unloading all of that stuff and getting the kids in bed took a while and Terry and I were exhausted and ready for bed. But, we soon learned that Santa's work is never done.

Instead of being able to hop in bed, we joined mom and Laura (both serious procrastinators) in the middle of the living room floor as they wrapped their gifts for the morning. Terry and I had to take the toys that were to be from Santa out of the packages. We had to assemble toys and attach special gift tags from Santa. I got huffy when I had trouble putting a gift together and I needed a screw driver and my mom just laughed. She told us to wait 'till the kids get older when instead of putting together small plastic toys we'll be requiring entire toolboxes to put togegther big things like bikes untill the wee hours of the morning.


The kids slept uncharictaristically late on Christmas morning and Grandpa David and I were up roaming the house in anticipation long before anyone else. Finally the kids started to stir. We made Luke, Caleb, and Micah all come down the stairs together (Adriah was spending her first Christmas at home with her mom and dad and would join us later.) Here's Micah getting his first glimpse of toys below.

Micah spotted the coveted Mickey Mouse Clubhouse from Santa right away. Caleb immediately went to his new walker and was content to spin around the hard woods at Grandma's house for twenty minutes (too bad he's bored with it at home!).

 

Their other gifts from Santa were a Lightning McQueen jumpsuit (Micah) a red teddy bear (Caleb) and an inflated punching bag (Micah and Caleb). Micah played with these toys and Caleb went down for his first nap as we waited for Aunt Jill, Uncle Bill, and Adriah before we opened our gifts to each other.

Mom made a big breakfast and we ate as we watched the kids play with their gifts. Here's Micah in his Super Why costume.

Most of us had a nap early in the afternoon and then we were off to Christmas number 4 at my grandmas. There were nearly 40 adults and six kids crammed into my grandmother's small house. She had baked and cooked till her arms nearly fell off and we snacked and ate heaping plates of every holiday food imaginable. It was the largest group of us cousins being together in a really long time. For fun we had Terry try and name each of my mom's sisters and their children (and their spouses and kids) in order of birth! He did pretty good- I think he only needed help once. Guess he's been paying attention these last nine years!

I didn't take any photos at my gmas-- too busy eating I guess. So on to Christmas #5.

On New Year's Day we celebrate with Terry's siblings. I love having Christmas stretch a whole week longer for us than the rest of the country! Usually we play a gift-giving game at the mall, but this year we did the regular gift thing so it was just a relaxing and quiet day at our house.

We made gingerbread houses.

And opened gifts.

Here's Uncle Kyle with the notepads Terry and I made for everyone. Micah's handprint and artwork. Caleb's footprint. We xerox'd them, shrunk them down and had Office Depot make notepads. I loved them!

I think Uncle Tyler took some good pics of Eileen and Caleb in their matching first Christmas pjs. I'll post those when Aunt Kelly sends her next batch of photos. So, sad to say, that's all the pictures I've got of this day, too. I put the camera down once we started playing Harry Potter CLUE! Mine and Terry's new favorite thing! (It's a good thing you can't just play two-player or else we'd never get anything done!) Thanks for the gift Uncle Tyler. You'll be proud to know I've beat your brother two times now! We've come a long way since the Simpsons, man!