Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas Day

Christmas morning came fast and furious! The boys were ready and roaring to head downstairs by 7:00 am. I told them that Santa may still be down stairs and they better hang out in the toy room for another half hour while mom and dad finished getting ready for the day. They're still young enough to think Santa might not leave gifts if they see him, so they ran back down the hallway to the toy room, yelling excitedly about what they thought Santa brought.

At 7:30 we headed down stairs and the boys dove, literally, into the presents under the tree.
There were yells and laughter and shouts about what they discovered inside all the wrapping paper. "More play-doh!" "A moving toothbrush!" "A shooting gun for the monsters!" "An Eagle Eye game!" "Super fast race cars!" "Talkie-walkies!"and on and on.
Micah donned his new gear right away - ready to take on the monsters and the bad guys.
Grady Lee thought his Thomas the Train toothbrush that "brushes my teeth all by itself!" was beyond cool.
Micah wasn't too sure at first - "It tickles my teeth!" At least he insisted on wearing his army hat to keep him safe while brushing.
About half-way through gift-opening, Grady Lee stopped what he was opening and shouted, "Santa ate his cookies and drank his milk! He really did come, right Mom?" Grady and I eyed each other and grinned, still remembering the squabble over which one of us got to finish the last cookie left out for Santa the night before.
I got busy making breakfast and the boys got busy playing with new toys. It didn't take long, however, for Grady Lee to remember that there were stockings to open still. The boys ripped into more wrapping paper, while Grady sat on the couch and tried his hardest to figure out how to finagle a transformer the boys received from Grandpa Peeler. Instructions were spread across his lap. Eyebrows were burrowed. A half hour later, Grady emerged victorious!
Gift opening lasted a fun hour and a half, but was over all too quickly. No fears - the boys ice-skated around the living room on the wrapping paper until Micah fell and started crying. Because, after all, a day cannot go by without Micah getting hurt so why not get that task out of the way first thing Christmas morning?
Annalyse slept most of the morning and decided to join us after gifts were opened. It was probably for the best because Grady and I didn't have to guard her from flying paper scraps and toys.
By the time all gifts were opened, breakfast was done, and the boys were settling down to play with some of their new toys, Grady burst out with, "Look at this! I think Santa left one more present for you guys!" The boys dropped what they were doing and ran to Grady.

Grady held out an envelope and Grady Lee ripped it open. Grady read a clue which led the boys to the toy shelf in Annalyse's bedroom. There, they discovered a new clue which led them to the next and the next and the next. They ran up and down the stairs, into the garage, and onto the deck before the scavenger hunt was over.
This video documents the whole scavenger hunt that, to us, is hysterical. To you, it'll probably be long and boring, but if nothing else you'll get a tour of my messy house on Christmas morning.
The boys were so in love with their new Christmas jammies that they ended up wearing them all day. For some of you that's totally normal. Not for us. To me, wearing jammies all day is gross. I don't know why, it just is. But, this was Christmas and I was in the mood to be "a fun mommy today!"

We spent lots of the day playing with new toys. I think Grady and I were just as excited to have new toys to play with, too. After a year of the same old toys we were all getting bored.
This sweet girl gave all of us a wonderful Christmas gift by sleeping well the night before and giving lots of coos and smiles all day long. Next year she'll join her brothers in ripping open gifts. This year, though, I enjoyed a small and quiet bundle to hold and love.
Since it was just our family for Christmas dinner, I asked the boys a few days prior what special food they wanted. They both yelled, "Pizza that we make - not pizza that the man delivers!" Alrighty then - pizza it is.
We gathered in the living room for a yummy pizza dinner by the fire and watched some basketball. The boys thought it was pretty fun to eat in the living room (not a normal thing) while wearing their jammies (not a normal thing) while watching TV (not a normal thing). Ah, the simple joys of Christmas.
As the day drew to a close, the boys wondered why there still wasn't any snow that had been predicted to come. Right before heading upstairs to get ready for bed, and to use their "new moving toothbrushes," they gave one last look out the slider door to see if there was snow.

Lo and behold there was! Big, puffy, heavy, white snowflakes were pouring down and actually sticking to the ground! This was the perfect capstone to an already perfect Christmas.
Christmas 2010 was just us - just the five Peeler's. No extended family. No traveling. No big hoopla. In some ways it felt strange, and in other ways it felt totally and completely wonderful. One this was for sure: "The Lord has done great things and we are filled with joy." Psalm 126:3. We had each other. We had a cozy home. We had laughter. And, most important, we made memories.

1 comment:

  1. What a precious, precious Christmas Day! And good for you enjoying a pajama day & pizza in the living room! (Those are my favorite kind of days!) I think that is part of the wonder of Christmas, enjoying things "out of the norm" because when you think about it the whole Christmas story about the birth of our Savior was certainly out of the norm! But "nothing is impossible with God!"

    ReplyDelete