Christmas Part 2

Our second holiday celebration included just our little family of four.  Pre-kids, we used to travel to our families on Christmas Eve, attend parties and go to the midnight candlelight service at the church I was baptised at and grew up attending.  While I still miss the extra magical aura of that service, we stopped traveling before Christmas day the year I was on semi bedrest after a preterm labor scare at 26 weeks pregnant, the week before Christmas.  Now, we make a point of making Christmas Eve and Christmas morning our family time without extended relatives.  I want our children to know that Santa knows where they live and that our stockings hung on our fireplace will be filled in the morning.

Christmas Eve day was low key around our home.  We used the day as the calm before the storm of lots of hoopla, people, traveling and presents.  We attended our church's 4:30 service, because it was the one that best fit around nap, mealtime and bedtime.  We even planned ahead to get a good spot (after having to sit next to the outside doors on folding chairs last Christmas Eve) and got there what I thought was super early with the plan to let Sam and Anna play in the nursery until the service started.  What I was not prepared for was row after row being held for large families that weren't going to arrive for a half hour or so.  We managed to find one spot in the middle of a row, that, after everyone arrived that spots had been saved for, allotted us enough room for just the two of us adults to sit on the pew a child on each lap, shoulder to should with the old men on either side of us.  It was cramped to say the least.   Considering the situation and really, even if we had lots of room, Sam and Anna did outstandingly well.  I fed them lots of snacks, but they didn't have any problems in our pew at all.  We were able to keep them with us the entire time too.  I just love sharing that special part of the holiday season with them.

After attempting to take some photos afterwards (but really, who was I kidding to think we would get two toddlers sitting still, looking at the camera and smiling after staying in one spot for so long at the service?) we had a nice family dinner and normal bedtime, after reading the Night Before Christmas.   Anna especially loves that story- she will sit still for the entire thing every time I read it this month.  After stockings were full, I had just one more present to wrap and then we positioned the big present (Sam and Anna's new wooden kitchen) before going to bed ourselves. 

Sam had other plans for the night, or maybe he was just waiting for Santa- but regardless, he had an unusually rough night.  About the time we were falling asleep, he woke up and was awake despite our best efforts until about 4 am.   This really messed with our plans to try to open presents, pack the car, eat breakfast and be out the door at 9 am the next morning.  We let him sleep as long as possible to try to recoup some of the lost sleep figuring we'd just roll with the punches and adjust our travel/nap schedule (because we don't have car sleepers, it makes it difficult to travel long ways)  and he ended up getting up about 9 am.  (Okay, maybe we needed at least a few hours of sleep to get through lots of travel and relatives, too.)

The look on Sam's face once he saw his stuffed stocking with doll sticking out of the top was exactly the kind of thing you see in the movies. It was perfect happiness. Anna's look was almost as good. They were thrilled with each little thing that came out of the stockings from Santa.

(Anna finished opening presents one handed because she wouldn't take the play oven mitt off)

And then we moved onto the wrapped presents from us.  Neither one noticed the large kitchen sitting by the tree until all the other things were unwrapped and we finally moved it closer to them.  I couldn't get a single shot of their faces because they were that into the kitchen.  We even had a hard time tearing them away from it to eat breakfast... causing some minor temper tantrums.

Not to mention the temper tantrums from both wanting to play with the same new toy at the same time.

(The day after Christmas, I went shopping to buy a second stroller for Sam's doll, along with a second Cookir Monster doll, thanks to the only one recieved as a gift.  Still in search of a second Elmo doll.)

Daddy made some Rudolph pancakes for Christmas breakfast, idea courtesy of pinterest.  They were delicious, and, I think, a new Christmas morning tradition.

Then we loaded up the car, cleaned up the present and wrapping paper carnage quickly (how is it possible that they each had only 3 wrapped presents, but it still looked like a bomb went off in our living room?) and headed off to the grandparents for Christmas part 3, only an hour and a half off schedule.