Christmas morning found Hudson up at 7:00 as usual and Max, Claire, and I all sleeping in to the best of our ability (Claire was up a good chunk of the night...what a treat!). In spite of the excitement, Hudson managed to control himself and aside from peeking through the French doors, he didn't bring up opening presents or getting into he living room even once. He simply ate his breakfast and then played quietly until the rest of us were ready to get up for the day. And this wasn't until Claire woke up at about 8:40! He seriously gets the award for "Most Patient Child on Christmas Morning".
We were all ready to get into the living room fairly quickly once Claire was up (with her cup of dry Froot Loops in hand). I headed in first with a camera in hand so that I could catch this shot:
And this one...
I love the look on Claire's face and Hudson's arms mid-run. They immediately headed for the deacon's bench at the back of the room where the "Santa gifts" sat. Hudson got his much-desired Star Wars clone trooper helmet (with foam dart gun) and Claire received a nice dolly stroller and new bendable plush doll. They both got rave reviews right off the bat with Hudson trying to open the box that his was in and Claire putting her cup o' Froot Loops in the stroller's storage basket and taking off to walk her new doll. Honestly, we probably could have stopped there. But we didn't...and who does?
We had a nice time opening gifts together, complete with a screech of joy from Claire with the opening of every gift she got (including the little ones in her stocking). In the end, we all got way more than we needed...especially considering that we really don't need anything at all. My favorite gift was the Food Saver that Max got for me. I can hardly wait to go to Costco, buy packages and packages of meat, and come home and seal them all for freezing with my new toy. As for the kids, I'm not sure what their faves were but from the pics below, you can see that they had a good time...
Hudson got the Lego headlamp from my dad. He would shine it on packages before he opened them (you can kind of see it in the one picture) and had a nice dent in the middle of his forehead when we finally took it off later. Definitely a hit!
Claire is officially a girly-girl. She loved her new dolls (two of them) and the little lavender purse and "pearl" necklace she got from Grandpa & Grandma C. (neighbors a couple of doors over but we happily claim them as family).
After the mayhem of opening presents - and cleaning up the mess - was done, we had a very relaxing holiday. There was, of course, some time spent putting toys together and opening boxes. Speaking of which, Max assembled Hudson's Star Wars helmet and gun and what's the 1st thing my boy did? Accidentally shot his sister in the face with one of the suction darts. Oops. Oh - the other thing we did was go and visit Max's parents (and his siblings and other family members that were there) for a little bit but other than that, we spent the day at home. We even had Christmas dinner here. And a very yummy Christmas dinner it was...grilled leg of lamb (with apple-mint jelly, of course!), baked potatoes, Jell-O, rolls, etc. Top it all off with a batch of homemade-from-scratch chocolate mousse and you're all set for extreme abdominal discomfort. And it's totally worth it.
Christmas was such a great, relaxing, and wonderful day for us this year. Hope it was for you, too!
P.S. If anyone is interested, I'm happy to share the lamb recipe...
1 comment:
That action shot is perfect! Claire's hair is so long. I know I just saw you guys, but I swear it has grown.
Post a Comment