Christmas Morning: Stockings and Breakfast!

When we finally went to bed on Christmas Eve I slept fitfully. Apparently, even when I am the one largely responsible for laying out most of the wondrous and magical surprises of Christmas morning, I am still like an 8 year old when it comes to the excitement of that evening and I don't sleep well.  I remember quite clearly when I was younger, probably in middle school or something, lying awake on Christmas Eve feeling absolute disbelief that it was, in fact, Christmas once again.  I remember dreaming about what the living room would look like when I woke up and walked out there.  The tree would be sparkling with fresh morning sunlight, reflecting in off the snow outside.  There would be brightly colored wrapped packages everywhere.  It would be just beautiful and absolutely amazing.   

I mean, obviously this year I was excited this year to witness and share in the joy of my children.  I only hoped that the spread awaiting my children out there in our living room would have an impact on my children something at least similar to what I remember from my own youth.  

And forgetting their initial, shocked, excited reactions, I just really wanted to see what they thought of all their gifts!

Matt got up around 5, which is pretty standard for him.  We had agreed the night before that when the children woke up, they would come and get me out of bed first before proceeding with anything under the tree.  We expected they'd be awake quite early you see.

But we were wrong.

I began to wake up myself somewhere between 6 and 6:30, unsure of why the kids weren't up yet.  At 6:45 my own impatience got the better of me and I crawled out of bed.

In the living room:

Everything was ready...

Both dogs were still asleep on the furniture.  

Matt was in the kitchen playing on his computer and drinking coffee.  I decided to peek in on the kids.  Normally, any time after 6 am if anybody so much as brushes past their bedroom doors (let alone opens them) they'll both pop awake.  But that morning, having both been up past 9 the night before:

There were still nestled deeply in their beds and they were both absolutely still, very soundly, asleep.

Weird.

I went back out to the kitchen, poured myself a cup of coffee and consulted their father.  I mean, I'm all for them sleeping in, but I had worked so hard to prepare myself for their waking me up entirely too early.  And I was excited too!  Couldn't we just get the show on the road?

We decided to go and get them up at 7.

We started with the boy.

"Peter!  Wake up!  I think Santa came!!  Let's go get your sister and look under the tree!!'

He hopped up with a gasp and actually shook the sleep out of his head.  The next thing I knew he was bursting into his sister's room begging her to get up with us hot on his heels.  A.J. did NOT much care for this awakening.  She did the perfectly natural thing and started to cry.  Not to worry, I scooped her up in my arms and we all followed Peter out to the tree.

The only way these next two photos could be better is if A.J. was in them too.

Think back to your own childhoods with me now...  

Do you remember that feeling?  That surprise?  That joy?  That pure excitement?!?!

That right there:  one of the best parts of being a parent.  

:)

So we started with their stockings.  They were both absolutely full to overflowing with some of their favorite treasures, and really, let's be honest, they both would have been plenty satisfied with the things they found in there alone.

Also, keep in mind her folks, that we keep Christmas pretty organized around here.  There is no mad tearing into everything and letting all the magic run it's course in 5 minutes.  We get up, we open stockings.  Then we eat breakfast.  Alright, so the grown ups eat breakfast.  The children pick at their food excitedly and ask if they can be done yet.  Then we do gifts, and when we do them, we open them one at a time.  No need to rush things.  It only comes once a year.  May as well let it last awhile.

And I know there are some out there who think all of that is absolutely ridiculous.  

Whatever.  

To each their own.

Anyway, back to the stockings.  I think it took them a good 30 minutes to reach the bottoms since they each stopped to play with nearly every object they pulled out.

Obviously the hat was new, as was the Mac
truck and cars, the dinosaur which was then
 followed by the slide whistle he's holding.

A.J. had reindeer antlers, a coloring book, another
dinosaur and then she got stuck on the slinky.

We actually had to convince him to keep looking
to see what ELSE was in there.

Ah the whoopie cushion.  He thought it was
great (as expected) but then it popped.  So sad.

A.J. had lots of little animal figurines.  She loved the cow best.

See Mama?  Cow!!  MOOOOOO!

A taxi!

I think she's still playing with the animals... probably the skunk.
But by then she'd  also discovered the "Princethes"
and the "SchoolBuths" too.

The Mac truck was one of the favorites of the
whole day.  Perhaps Santa played one of his
Aces too soon?

She'd go "One... Two... Three..." and then stretch it out
for us like it was a big trick.  Over and over and over again.

Pretty good haul from stockings I'd say.

My little reindeer.

And a happy little Christmas tree

Finally it was time to eat something.  Matt warmed up the cinnamon rolls his mother had sent and the kids took their favorite new things to the table with them.

In the end, A.J. ate about half of hers.  Peter ate nothing.  But we made them both wait until we were finished before we moved back to that pile of gifts...

Christmas Eve Celebration: Junk for Dinner!!

After church on Christmas Eve we've created our own little mix of family traditions... and by created, I mean we've done something similar both of the 2 years since we've had kids and NOT gone back to Ohio for the holidays.  Prior to children, well, we did all sorts of things on Christmas Eve (most notably dining at the fabulous Hotel Del two years in a row) so there were never any real traditions there on the years we didn't go home.

But so, okay, when I was a little girl (most years) we'd all be up at my (Grandpa and) Grandma's.  We'd have dinner, get dressed up and go to church.  After we'd come home and feast on cheese and crackers, chips, dips, candies and Christmas cookie goodness.  At least that the way it was the good years... the ones that I remember best, or whatever.

So in Matt's family things are similar I suppose.  His Grandparents live across town from his childhood home so after church everyone gathers there for a big party.  His mother had 9 brothers and sisters so it was, and still is, a pretty big thing when you start factoring cousins and aunts/uncles who married into the family and boyfriends and girlfriends.  There in the dining room on the table a pot luck feast is laid out.  Somebody always brings a meat and cheese/sandwich platter.  Somebody else brings a shrimp platter.  There are also chips and dips and candies and cookies.... of course, and everybody pretty much eats their way through the evening between exchanging gifts and the random part of the evening when they put on old records (YES ACTUAL RECORDS) of Up on the Housetop and the Babes in Toyland march and everybody circles around and around the table doing the "Reindeer Dance" and the "Toy Soldier March."  

(I'm seriously considering tracking down recordings of those songs and recreating those dances around the table here at our own house in the years to come....)

Anyway, for us, last year and this year, church was so early that we didn't have dinner before hand.  But we didn't want to ruin the after church buffet, so, basically, all that junk food became dinner.  

How very unhealthy American of us right?

This picture was supposed to be of the spread but instead I caught the little one
trying to make off with a piece of fudge.

I mean, how dare she?  Trying to steal fudge right out of the container before dinner.  Gosh darn it, there was going to be perfectly good fudge waiting for her on her dinner plate if she could have just waited a moment longer for me to make it for her.

:)

Anyway, so we put the bench out in front of the couch (since we no longer have a coffee table) so the kids could eat in front of the TV and then we put a Christmas movie on.

Or... um, okay, so we tried to.

But for whatever reason our DVD of The Muppet Christmas Carol gave up the fight.  It simply wouldn't play.  We tried several different players before we called it, but alas, the disk is dead.

*Sniff*

Such a good little movie.  It lived a good life.

And now I definitely need to order another copy of that movie....

Also, don't you just love the way A.J. is helping in that last picture?  (Hahahaha.)

I didn't even really try to help.  I was too busy eating...

I spent a lot of time making this cookies,
OBVIOUSLY it was my duty to bite their heads off.  :)

Eventually, we gave up on the Muppets and turned on The Polar Express.  Not nearly as good, but good enough.

I have no idea...

Babe, did you have food still your mouth for our one and only picture together?

He really was proud of that tie.  (He looks like
E. Gordan Gee.  How very Go Bucks of him though?)

Don't look now, but approximately half the people who ever read this blog just stopped to Google search  for E. Gordan Gee.  

Don't worry, I'll wait for you.

Figure it out now?

Okay.  Moving on then.

A.J. stuck to her regular habits of showing entirely too much interest in her Daddy's wine.

Only her DADDY's wine.

Forget the wine, just look how cute she is standing there
on here little tippy-toes!

(Something tells me it has a lot more to do with her Dad than what he's drinking.)

Peter, on the other hand...

He burned off all that sugar jumping on the couch.

Is that a STRAW in your wine glass?!?!

The wine must be kicking in judging by the look on his face.

There's a sweet moment.

Of course, the dogs came in when it was time to clean up.

Hey, it was their Christmas too right?

Soon enough, Matt was starting to do this:  

Some help he was going to be!

When our movie ended the kids were quickly changed into their jammies and went to bed.  Obviously a couple more hours passed before the grown ups could turn in though.  Had to make sure the coast was clear.... not a creature stirring, and all that.  

But in the end, Santa Claus came and left a beautiful spread.  

Assured that everything was ready for the morning, Matt and I went to bed ourselves and settled in for what we expected to be some short winter's naps.  There were two excited children who we expected would be waking us up very early after all....

Christmas Eve Children's Mass

So on Christmas Eve the "Children's Mass" at our church was scheduled to begin in our regular chapel at 4:45 pm.  Last year they held this one down in the (much larger) Holy Family Center, with the "overflow" being at 5 pm in the other location.  Not sure why they switched it this year.  Anyway, last year we arrived about 40 minutes early and took one of the last few seats in the larger space.  So this year we decided to be there a good hour early.  Being in the regular chapel when it's overly crowded makes me feel claustrophobic anyway.  Something about the limited number of exits.  I NEEDED to be on the aisle... near a door.  

Anyway, so we got there while the Children's choir was warming up, before they'd even turned the lights on. There were already about 20 families or so fighting for the seats down front but those weren't for us.  We chose our side aisle seats about 3 rows from the back and settled in for the long wait until things would begin.  Peter played games on my phone.  A.J. ate all of her snacks.  Nearly an hour went by and the place packed full around us.  

Peter was pretty cute when he saw one of his friends from class and one of his teachers, calling out happily greetings to both of the across the crowd and over the the low roar of people chatting before mass.  He's certainly not shy that's for sure.  

When the priest and altar servers came in and everything got started we made Peter put his phone up.  He wasn't happy about this at ALL but he soon settled in next to the random 5 year old girl who was sitting next to us with her family.  As Matt and I stood (wrestling A.J. in our arms) through the opening prayers and greetings and the Gloria, the pair made friends.  In whispers they told each other their names and ages and pointed out all the members of their families for the other.  Weird.  But cute.

During the readings the new friends continued to bond.  A.J. continued to freak out.  So did the little girl's little brother.  Soon Matt took AJ out to the lobby for a break and the littler girl's Dad did the same with the brother.  This left me on the end with a large 6 foot space open before the little's girl's mother.  Our 2 kids sat in the space between doing their making friends thing.  

The Priest finished his reading from the Gospel.  Then he asked where all the kids were and in a moment both Peter and his little friend were jumping up and down waving their hands madly in the air.  

"Why don't all the kids come down front here so we can talk" the Priest invited.  And children began to flow out of the packed pews towards the altar.  

"Can I go Mom?" Peter asked me excitedly.  (As if I really could have contained him.)

I nodded reluctantly.  He grabbed the little girl's hand and they ran together up to the front, disappearing into the crowd of kids.

The Mom next to me laughed.  "You know they're never going to find their way back to us right?"

True.  Very true.

But that wasn't exactly my big concern.  Most Sundays during regular mass the Father invites the kids up front for a brief chat and a prayer before they go off for a little lesson during the readings and the homily.  But Peter has always been at babysitting or Sunday school so he's not included.  I think they design it this way on purpose, as the lesson is designed for kids age 5 and older.  And every single week Matt and I watch the kids up there and wonder how our own will fair when they are old enough to go.  We usually notice a few girls desperately trying to behave perfectly and earn the privilege of carrying out the cross.  Then we always find several of the boys hanging towards the back of the pack, bothering each other.

I'm pretty sure I know where Peter will likely fall into the group when his turn comes.

The Priest started talking.  He was a asking the children about Christmas and I could hear a few soft voices answering him.  From my seat near the back I couldn't see my boy but when I heard a little voice say clearly that "we are going to get presents!" I was pretty sure it was him.  Another Dad, sitting across the aisle had a better view and assured me that YES, that had been Peter talking.

I flushed.  Not sure if it was with pride or embarrassment.

 Matt came back with A.J.  I filled my husband in on what had happened and what was going on.

The priest went on.  Every few minutes I'd see Peter's little head pop up as he wasn't able to sit still and kept standing up.

Matt left A.J. with me and went to the restroom.  Just then the Priest started talking about the stable Jesus had been born in.  The animals.  The cold.  The... um, likely smell.  He asked the children if they could imagine what it was like and I heard Peter's voice say "It probably smelled like a SKUNK!  Pee-yew!!!"

Everybody chuckled.

The Priest continued on about how humble Jesus's birth had been.  And really how humble his life had been too. And yet how very much it meant for us here on Earth.  How the whole world was a better place for his having been here.  He started to read a story about some place where a grumpy ruler made everything bad, it was supposed to relate how bad the word would be if Jesus had never been born.  I can't be sure of the details because the kids were starting to stop paying attention and I was busy stressing about Peter some more.

He kept popping up and down.  Whenever the Priest asked a question he was up, wildly waving his arm begging to be called on, saying,  "me! Me! Pick me!!" even though I seriously doubt he knew either the question being asked or the answer.  

Matt came back and I sent him up near the front to keep an eye on our boy.  Things were dissovling rapidly up there and he was starting to wander around a bit.  I silently prayed that the candle holders were somehow bolted into the floor, lest he knock them over.  I had frightening visions of him catching the whole lot of kids up there on fire. 

And then... then he noticed the nativity.  

He only poked at the baby Jesus a little bit I promise.  And he only got 4 or 5 other kids to stand up to see what he was doing.  And the Priest didn't seem to mind or notice at all.

BUT STILL!

As soon as the Priest finished and sent the kids on their way back to their seats, Matt grabbed him and took him out to the lobby for a minute.  

It was fine... really.  We were proud of him for bravely speaking out and anwwering questions.  I was proud he hadn't caused any real trouble.  But we also wanted to make sure he had a chance to get his wiggles out and see that he understood he's supposed to keep his hands to himself and respect things.

NO MORE POKING THE BABY JESUS!

But once again my boy had seemed to steal the show.  When I went up for communion so many people said nice things about him.  My favorite was the lady who had the wine, she said "I love his spirit."

Spirit.

Ha.

That's so true.  After his school performance one of my girlfriends and I had a whole conversation about dealing with our "spirited" children.  

I'll take spirited over shy, and dull any day.  

Hard though it may be.

After communion one of the men who'd been sitting down front came back to find us.  He'd taken this photo on his phone and wanted my email address so he could send it to us.

Merry Christmas.  :)

Probably my new favorite photo EVER.

I love how so many of the other kids are looking at them.  Check out the bigger kids in the choir behind them all amused.  

MISTER CONGENIALITY!

I'm telling you.  Just wait.

* * * * *

And, OH!  One more thing:

Did you notice his bow tie?

Yeah, well, about that...  Matt and I got ourselves dressed that afternoon while the children were sleeping.  Matt almost NEVER wears a tie with his suits, but since he went his nice trousers and a blazer instead of a true suit, he decided to wear one that night because otherwise it just looked kind of funny.  And so when we woke Peter up and started getting him dressed the boy looked at his Father and mumbled, sleepily, that he too wanted a bow tie.

He looked shattered, like he might cry if he didn't get one.

I was sure he didn't REALLY mean a bow tie, he probably wanted a long tie like his Dad's and was just confusing the names again.

Matt thought for a moment and said he'd see what he could do.  He disappeared for a minute and returned with the black bow tie from his dress uniform.

If it had been me I would have gotten his black, long tie from his suit looking uniform, and then tucked it into his sweater.  But Matt heard BOW TIE, and so that's what he got.  We shortened up the neck so it fit under his collar well and  it was pretty cute too.  A bit wide for him I suppose, but very cute.  :)

Christmas Eve Family Pictures

On Christmas Eve, after we'd all gotten dressed in our fancy clothes for church, I set up the camera on the tripod to try to get our traditional family pictures in front of the tree.  

The kids by themselves had a hard time cooperating.

Daddy is silly

This was our first "timer" picture of the lot of us.  It is probably my favorite except the flash didn't go off so it's a bit grainy.

Matt with the kids.  A.J. seemed more determined
to pout and look cute than to smile.

Me and my boy (and some absolutely terrible posture!)

Me with both kids... not horrible

Our other good family shot.  We all just look bit awkward, but I suppose this one is okay too.  At least the flash went off.