December 25th - Christmas morning!
But first, one more close-up picture from Christmas Eve that I meant to include at the end of my last post:
We always spend Christmas morning at home, of course.
We always spend Christmas morning at home, of course.Remember I said Will didn't get to bed until midnight on Christmas Eve? Well lo and behold... guess who arrived at the top of our bedroom steps at 6:30 a.m.??? Nice alarm clock, huh?
I was reeeeeally hoping he would sleep till 8-ish on account of the late bedtime. But nope! So instead, we made him climb into bed with us until about 8:15 or so and he was okay with that... But he didn't sleep... And he's really squirmy. ;)
Finally, we got up and came downstairs. Sophie was still sleeping - bless her heart - and we had to wake her to get started since Will had been waiting so long. She wasn't real happy about being awake at first and even opened the first couple presents with scrunched eyebrows. Haha. But she livened up after awhile and we all took a nap around noon. :)
Believe it or not, even after the 24 new books we opened in our Christmas Countdown, the kids still opened more books on Christmas morning. What can I say? We're a book-loving bunch!
Will has this dinosaur book nearly memorized now and has learned a few more new names of these huge prehistoric creatures: diplodocus, oviraptor, ankylosaurus, etc.
Lots more new puzzles too!
Melissa & Doug dress-up bear family.
I love these new Montessori-esque puzzles that I scored for a great deal from Land of Nod. One on fractions and two on graduating dimensions/color shades.
This year, we each had a designated wrapping paper style to look for instead of labeling. I didn't get too much into what was from Santa and what was from us, but Will knows he got presents from both. I think by next year, we'll have to formulate a plan with this and establish some sort of tradition. But I've read a couple cool ideas on how other families do things.
Sophie got a super cool new sorting game from Lakeshore to help her learn colors. The quality of this set is really impressive, as expected from Lakeshore. And, though she didn't seem to understand the concept at first (except that it is fun to put the rings on the spindles), by the afternoon she was grasping the concept of sorting! (Even if she didn't understand that each color has it's own name yet.) By the next day, she had improved even more and she has been saying "purple" for a couple weeks now. So I think she's going to catch on quickly. I also think purple might be her favorite color. :)
Will once again elected himself everyones helper with gift opening.
Craig got a new pair of sneaks. Ha! Like he really needs another pair of shoes... I literally just got him a different pair of Pumas for his birthday in October. But, that's what he wanted! This man and his shoes...
I knew this game would be a huge hit even if the real point of the game didn't catch on until later. And I was right! Both kids loved plunking the little round chips into the board and watching them drop and fill up the board.
I love, love, love this gift presentation!
And I love, love, love my new "family tree" necklace from Craig.
A colorful new set of "xylopipes" has left our ears ringing. But what a smiley face it brought for our girl!
Stockings!
Craig got The Fast & The Furious on blu-ray. 
The kids got bibs, Tell Me a Story cards, water color crayons, etc.
Remember how much I complained about my ear buds always falling out when I was running with the iPod? Well, I got a sweet new pair in my stocking and these bad boys don't budge! They're awesome! I laughed at the Paul Frank pink... I'm going to be so hip when I run now. LOL
Will "helping"... again.
Yay! Some new Bows2Cute hair bows for our lovely lady's locks.
P.S. I love the kids' Christmas jammies this year! My mom got all the grandkids a pair to wear on Christmas morning this year and all three little girls were matching.
At the end of all the gifts and stockings, daddy tells Will he has one more surprise...
...waiting for him in the closet.
Woo hoo! A red bicycle, just like he asked for on every Santa's lap!
The bike came with training wheels, which I plan to remove as soon as the weather is nice enough to practice outside. A part of me wishes we'd gotten the bike this past summer because I really think he'd have been capable of learning to ride without the training wheels then.
After the bike reveal, we settled in for a late breakfast. I had a cranberry nut coffee cake baking in the oven while we were opening, so I just made up a quick fruit salad and put some sausage links on to warm while I scrambled the eggs. This picture is hideous:
Mmm! I love the strong almond extract flavor in this cake.
The rest of the morning was spent playing with our gifts.
I was reeeeeally hoping he would sleep till 8-ish on account of the late bedtime. But nope! So instead, we made him climb into bed with us until about 8:15 or so and he was okay with that... But he didn't sleep... And he's really squirmy. ;)
Finally, we got up and came downstairs. Sophie was still sleeping - bless her heart - and we had to wake her to get started since Will had been waiting so long. She wasn't real happy about being awake at first and even opened the first couple presents with scrunched eyebrows. Haha. But she livened up after awhile and we all took a nap around noon. :)
Believe it or not, even after the 24 new books we opened in our Christmas Countdown, the kids still opened more books on Christmas morning. What can I say? We're a book-loving bunch!
Will has this dinosaur book nearly memorized now and has learned a few more new names of these huge prehistoric creatures: diplodocus, oviraptor, ankylosaurus, etc.
Lots more new puzzles too!
Melissa & Doug dress-up bear family.
I love these new Montessori-esque puzzles that I scored for a great deal from Land of Nod. One on fractions and two on graduating dimensions/color shades.
This year, we each had a designated wrapping paper style to look for instead of labeling. I didn't get too much into what was from Santa and what was from us, but Will knows he got presents from both. I think by next year, we'll have to formulate a plan with this and establish some sort of tradition. But I've read a couple cool ideas on how other families do things.
Sophie got a super cool new sorting game from Lakeshore to help her learn colors. The quality of this set is really impressive, as expected from Lakeshore. And, though she didn't seem to understand the concept at first (except that it is fun to put the rings on the spindles), by the afternoon she was grasping the concept of sorting! (Even if she didn't understand that each color has it's own name yet.) By the next day, she had improved even more and she has been saying "purple" for a couple weeks now. So I think she's going to catch on quickly. I also think purple might be her favorite color. :)
Will once again elected himself everyones helper with gift opening.
Craig got a new pair of sneaks. Ha! Like he really needs another pair of shoes... I literally just got him a different pair of Pumas for his birthday in October. But, that's what he wanted! This man and his shoes...
I knew this game would be a huge hit even if the real point of the game didn't catch on until later. And I was right! Both kids loved plunking the little round chips into the board and watching them drop and fill up the board.
I love, love, love this gift presentation!
And I love, love, love my new "family tree" necklace from Craig.
A colorful new set of "xylopipes" has left our ears ringing. But what a smiley face it brought for our girl!
Stockings!
Craig got The Fast & The Furious on blu-ray. 
The kids got bibs, Tell Me a Story cards, water color crayons, etc.
Remember how much I complained about my ear buds always falling out when I was running with the iPod? Well, I got a sweet new pair in my stocking and these bad boys don't budge! They're awesome! I laughed at the Paul Frank pink... I'm going to be so hip when I run now. LOL
Will "helping"... again.
Yay! Some new Bows2Cute hair bows for our lovely lady's locks.
P.S. I love the kids' Christmas jammies this year! My mom got all the grandkids a pair to wear on Christmas morning this year and all three little girls were matching.
At the end of all the gifts and stockings, daddy tells Will he has one more surprise...
...waiting for him in the closet.
Woo hoo! A red bicycle, just like he asked for on every Santa's lap!
The bike came with training wheels, which I plan to remove as soon as the weather is nice enough to practice outside. A part of me wishes we'd gotten the bike this past summer because I really think he'd have been capable of learning to ride without the training wheels then.
After the bike reveal, we settled in for a late breakfast. I had a cranberry nut coffee cake baking in the oven while we were opening, so I just made up a quick fruit salad and put some sausage links on to warm while I scrambled the eggs. This picture is hideous:
Mmm! I love the strong almond extract flavor in this cake.
The rest of the morning was spent playing with our gifts.Reading books... or, in this case, a children's atlas.
Filling the Connect 4 board 30 or 40 times. ;)
Kickin' up feet in new slippers.
Cuddling.
Trying our hand with a "button snake".
"Button snakes" are/were all over the Tot School blogs and I always wanted to make/get one. The point of them is to teach little fingers how to button. I'm sure it would be incredibly easy to make... just stitch a piece of ribbon with one end attached to a felt square and the other to a button. Then cut a just-wide-enough slit in several other felt squares (doesn't have to be felt) and the child just "buttons" each square and slides it down the ribbon. Easy peasy. But I never got around to trying this before finding one on Etsy for $3.50 + free shipping. That's definitely worth the time I saved making my own. ;) 
Flashy new additions to the matchbox "Cars & Trucks" collection.
A (pretty challenging!) cube puzzle by Melissa & Doug with six different farm animal scenes to make different puzzle pictures.
Loving up the littlest.
Teamwork on the color sorting.
Filling the Connect 4 board 30 or 40 times. ;)
Kickin' up feet in new slippers.
Cuddling.
Trying our hand with a "button snake".
"Button snakes" are/were all over the Tot School blogs and I always wanted to make/get one. The point of them is to teach little fingers how to button. I'm sure it would be incredibly easy to make... just stitch a piece of ribbon with one end attached to a felt square and the other to a button. Then cut a just-wide-enough slit in several other felt squares (doesn't have to be felt) and the child just "buttons" each square and slides it down the ribbon. Easy peasy. But I never got around to trying this before finding one on Etsy for $3.50 + free shipping. That's definitely worth the time I saved making my own. ;) 
Flashy new additions to the matchbox "Cars & Trucks" collection.
A (pretty challenging!) cube puzzle by Melissa & Doug with six different farm animal scenes to make different puzzle pictures.
Loving up the littlest.
Teamwork on the color sorting. Will does an excellent job helping to "teach" Sophie by telling her the names of each color as they place each ring.
Teamwork to wake daddy from his premature snooze. ;)
Will thought it would be hilarious if we wore our stockings on our feet like a sock. Maybe my kid's onto something! This just may be the next fashion statement over skinny jeans! LOL
He's always offering up the smooches. Love.
A family pic on the couch just before we all crashed for a much-needed nap.
Teamwork to wake daddy from his premature snooze. ;)
Will thought it would be hilarious if we wore our stockings on our feet like a sock. Maybe my kid's onto something! This just may be the next fashion statement over skinny jeans! LOL
He's always offering up the smooches. Love.
A family pic on the couch just before we all crashed for a much-needed nap.
1 comment:
I CAN NOT wait until I can have a cute little family Christmas! You guys are adorable and that pic is NOT HIDEOUS! I love it!
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