Christmas Day 2009

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas together for the first time, just our little family--no travel plans for the day. I took a picture of the room before the children found it.

Santa left a coloring/activity book, crayons/colored pencils, puzzle, breakfast bar and water for each of the children in their rooms. . .

Along with a note. . .

I thought Santa was a genius! As it turned out, he was--but not in exactly the way I thought it would work out. Gratefully, nobody woke us up until about 7:30, so at that point, I didn't really need to be left alone to sleep. While they were enjoying their gifts in their rooms, I was able to get dressed a ready for the day. The best part of my day with them was what happened next. They all came into our bedroom and put their puzzles together with help from their Daddy and each other (snacking on popcorn that we received from a neighbor). Nobody expressed any hurry to get down to see the rest of the "loot."

As usual, Lou was in no big hurry to join us downstairs (:)), but I was anxious to have him with us, so while he took his time getting ready, I fed the kids some pancakes in Emma's room.

We didn't actually go downstairs until after 9AM! Isn't that some kind of record for a family with young children?!? And, although it was somewhat chaotic, everybody took turns opening gifts and giving gifts to each other which made the morning last for a good couple of hours! Just my style! Damian has been the most excited about the family gift from Santa (a keyboard). Surprisingly, I didn't take too many pictures of the morning, but needless to say, everybody had a good time and we all felt blessed with more than we needed! I can't believe I don't have any pictures of Gehrig with his gifts. He was so cute about everything he got, right down to the shirt and tie.
After opening the gifts and cleaning up a bit, we enjoyed a delicious meal of ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, green salad, jello salad, etc. Wow! We have a lot to be grateful for this year--most importantly each other and the Gospel!