Christmas eve was a fun and busy day! My mom and my brother arrived to visit for the rest of the week and we had the missionaries over for dinner. James helped me pick out little presents for them so they would have something to open when he and Rett opened their presents from Elfie James 3 (Christmas pajamas). They gave us a little lesson on the Restoration and then we had a huge feast of Chinese takeout. Yum! After the boys fell asleep, Santa came!
Christmas morning James came into our room around 7:45 am (which is his usual wake-up time now). His eyebrows were at the top of his forehead and he whispered, "Santa came and brought presents!". He insisted on showing us the presents, but then he agreed to watch Curious George until Rett woke up so we could open presents together.
After I made breakfast, Rett woke up!
James loved his candy in his stocking, and his new candle tea light. Rett got one too, but James says his is brighter :)
James was our official present passer this year. He would pick out each one and bring it to us to read the label for him. Then he would bring it to who it belonged to. He was very good about being patient and watching while someone else opened their presents. He also loved to help ripping off the wrapping paper! He informed us that Rett is too little to open his own presents, so he will have to show him. We decided to compromise and have Daddy help so all three of them could open Rett's presents together:
James really wanted to ride in an airplane for Christmas, so Santa left an envelope with a small toy airplane and a note. The note said that there were no airplanes available from the north pole, so he got him train tickets to ride a real train instead!
James got a school bus from Rett:
He also got a rocket book, which he instantly turned into a toy rocket and was blasting it off across the room:
Rett got this ball popper toy that I just knew he would love! You put the balls in, they bounce around and then come out of the dinosaur's mouth. Rett sits there and puts the balls back in over and over again.
He also likes to watch the balls come out of the dinosaur's mouth, so he will lay down right in front of it. It is so cute!
James' sunbeam class made presents for all of their family members, so I got to open mine. It was a note that said "I love you Mom" that he colored and a basket of seashells. Anthony got a note and some lotion and Rett got a tub of play-doh.
Rett got an airplane push toy that pops out little balls, so James helped me put it together. So far Rett has been a little scared of it, so James has taken over the responsibility of playing with it :)
James got a new toy lawn mower that comes with a pretend gas tank for filling up his gas. This is important because a few months ago he got into our shed in the backyard and filled up his other toy lawn mower with
real gas. After we talked about how dangerous it was that he did that, his response was, "Well, I need pretend gas!"
He loves that you can actually pull a cord to start it up, instead of just pretending with his old lawn mower. It is really loud though, so it might not have been the smartest purchase for the grown ups to endure.
The very last present to open was a large package from Santa to James and Rett: a toy kitchen! James has been very interested in helping me cook lately and is actually getting pretty good. Now he can make us food all day long! Rett loves taking everything out and opening and closing all the doors.
Of course, it wasn't just the kids opening presents, we got to open some too! I got some great gifts this year: a Harry Potter scarf and blanket from my brother, an activity tracker bracelet (that tracks your steps and sleep, etc...) from Anthony, and funny enough a different brand activity bracelet from my mom! After a good laugh about how great minds think alike, I spent some time comparing the two bracelets and picked one to return. Choices, choices!
Anthony got boat wax, a new foam pressure washer for cleaning the boat, and cash towards his new rod and reel he wants to buy. You can't go wrong with anything boat related and money!
My brother started this funny tradition of getting cards to go with presents that are obviously wrong (different language, different occasion, etc...). So this year, when we went shopping for my brother's present I couldn't resist getting him a card that sings to you in Spanish when you open it! It was the best one so far, if I do say so myself. To go with the card, we got him a special mitt for cleaning his car and a 3D printed bobble-head Daniel to go on his desk at work:
My mom got a grandmother necklace with crystal birthstone rings on it for each of her grandchildren, a new 2015 James and Rett photo calendar, and this funky poster from Daniel. The back story of this poster is that it hung in our family's dining room growing up and everybody who came over to our house commented on it. It got lost years ago and I've bought her posters from the same artist, but Daniel finally got the exact one we used to have.
After presents, we cleaned up a little bit and everyone got on their Christmas t-shirts. It was a tough choice deciding who had the best one this year! None of us could decide, so we put all the pictures on Facebook and left it to a vote.
Daniel:
My mom:
Anthony:
Rett:
Me:
I got James a Grinch shirt, but he didn't want to get out of his pajama's and put it on. Daniel was sure he was going to win, but by the end of the night the score was: my mom: 10, Me: 5, Daniel: 4, Rett: 3, and Anthony: 0. She won the Christmas chocolate, but she shared it with everyone so we were all winners :)
The rest of the evening we ate lots of ham, rolls, green beans, apple pie, and ice cream while watching Christmas movies. We watched the original Home Alone and James sat through the entire thing for the first time. He loved Kevin McCalister. We told him that the little boy was him in 5 years and he really took that to heart. He kept saying, "Oh yeah, he is me but older". I guess we should start watching out for booby traps at our house!
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