Christmas Morning

We have always been very fortunate with how patient our children are on Christmas morning. Again this year they did a great job. Rehm was the first to arrive in our room at 7:00 am on the dot. This was the earliest they were allowed to get out of bed. Aren't we mean? Charlotte arrived about five minutes later. Ruby showed up at 7:20. As each one came and crawled in bed with us, we talked about past Christmases all the way back to when Rehm was a baby. By 7:45 they were all antsy enough that we decided it was time to wake up Eliza Claire. She wasn't too thrilled about being woken up, but got over it fairly quick when she realized Santa had come.

I'm sure this is shocking to my family. I was the queen of getting up in the middle of the night to go see what Santa had brought me. I never could get my sister to get up with me. On the years we shared a room when I came back to bed I would make a point to tell her what she got as pay back for her not getting up with me. If I didn't get up in the middle of the night I was definitely up and checking out the Santa stash by 6:00 am at the latest! It drove my family crazy! So I'm sure they can not believe I am so mean as to make my children be up for almost an hour before letting them at the gifts. I think having a two story house is a large part of why this is possible.

Grandma arrived right as we were coming downstairs to see what Santa had brought. We opened presents, each taking turns, one gift at a time, so everyone could see what each person got. And also to prolong the excitement of present opening. After presents we had our traditional breakfast casserole and not so traditional Moravian sugar cake. Usually we have Grandma's pecan rolls and stollen. This year Grandma and Grandpa were supposed to be in Houston so I made the sugar cake. They ended up staying home because Grandpa was under the weather.

The rest of the day was spent in our pjs just enjoying our family and all our new toys. Grandma came back over in the afternoon to play games with us and have dinner. Dinner was ham and macaroni and cheese. This was the very first time I have ever bough a ham! And honestly I wouldn't have bought this one if the grocery store had not been running a great deal where I got as much free groceries as the cost of the ham. I don't know why I've never bought a ham before. For as much as I cook I'm kind of surprised it took me this long to get around to it.

It was a perfect Christmas day at our house! I hope it was at yours, too.
Jenn

PS On a interesting side note: I asked Ruby and Eliza Claire what Santa was going to bring them. Their answers: Ruby, a toy frog; Eliza Claire, a blue shirt. Apparently this is what the told their preschool teachers and it stuck. Luckily Santa did come through with both items. I thought they were quite random.