Christmas Morning

We had a lovely time on Christmas morning. Our children are at that perfect age where everything is so magical.

I woke up at 630 to hear Ryan (who had been sleeping on the floor in Luke and Evie's room) yelling "Get up! Get up! It's Christmas morning!"

About half a second later, all 3 kids were tearing into our room, pouncing us in the bed. They were so, so excited.

We did stockings, opened up piles and piles presents (we gave up the tradition of opening presents one at a time about 3/4 of the way through and just let them tear into their piles ) and ate monkey bread. We spent the morning in our PJs playing games and just watching the kids enjoy their loot.



Calvin loved his baby doll
Caroline made our family puppets to look like us - I especially love the Ken puppet goatee and the Evie puppet googly eyes. So stinkin' cute.

Luke loved Steggy the 2nd (Steggy the 1st met an unfortunate end - decapitated by the dog).
Evie spent the morning dressed up in her new princess gear, vacuuming the house.

Lily was just happy to be. Happy to be smiled at, happy to stare at the Christmas lights, happy to be held. Happy, happy, happy.

Grandma and Grandpa Walton arrived late Monday night for Christmas - and the kids have been in hog heaven. We let Evie get up at 11:30 for a while when they got in and she just sat on the couch, hugging Grandma, with the biggest grin I think I have ever seen.

We took everyone to the Mall of America today (honestly, not as crazy as I thought it would be) and the kids got to ride rides and listen to a kid band play Christmas songs. Evie and Ryan loved it - they just danced and danced.

We came home and decorated cookies today. If you don't mind some kid finger prints, they look pretty good!

Christmas Day Recap

On Christmas Morning, we:

Figured out that Santa really did come.

Watched the kids' excitement over their mountains of presents.

Well, Luke and Ryan were excited about the presents. Evie was mostly excited about her sucker.
Opened presents. And more presents. And more presents.

Luke was generous enough to offer his present -opening services to anyone who needed them (or, really, anyone who didn't need him).
Luke's favorite? His geotrax airplane, along with stuffed Stegosaurus ("Steggy"). He also loved his packet of cars (with his name on it) from Grandma and Grandpa.
Daddy got a PSP and a ton of games.
Grandpa got a new hat -- this is in remembrance of his old Indiana Jones hat that met an untimely end on a cruise ship a few years ago. Doesn't he look dashing?
Ryan's favorite present by far was the box of fruit snacks from Aunt Danica.
I got a new purse from my parents and a new, wide angle lens for my camera from Ken. Plus some very cool stuff from China (silk scarf, jewelry).

We spent the rest of the day playing games, enjoying the snow and making a snowman, an just hanging out. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!