Christmas '09

Of the 10 Christmas we've spent together, this was the first that we celebrated by ourselves. We've considered doing this before (especially since we started having children), but the thought of spending Christmas morning away from extended family has always been a little depressing to us. What can I say? We love the craziness that comes with our large families. This year however, Sam requested that we celebrate Christmas at our own house, so we decided to give it a go. Of course, I must clarify that we spent part of Christmas Eve with Andrew's family, and the second half of Christmas day with my family, but the point is, we spent most of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning by ourselves....that's progress!

We spent the afternoon of Christmas Eve with Andrew's parents, three brothers and their families at our house decorating gingerbread houses. I'm sure that more candy was consumed than used to decorate the houses, but they turned out cute and everyone seemed to have a great time.



After we wrangled our kids to bed, Andrew and I (with Santa's help) filled stockings, assembled bikes, set out presents and got everything else in order for Christmas morning. As I've mentioned before, I love this part! Andrew also made some rules for the boys before they went to bed:

1. No one gets up before 6:30 a.m (which is a stretch for our kids).
   
2. The beds must be made before we can go downstairs
   
3. And lastly, Mom and Dad go downstairs first to inspect what Santa left
   

On Christmas morning we heard Sam stirring in his bed around 5:00 am. Fortunately, he has a clock in his room, and like a good little boy he patiently waited for 6:30 to arrive. At 6:27 Andrew heard Sam say, "It's super-duper close to 6:30!!!" And of course, right at 6:30 we had two little boys at our bedside.




Andrew's parents, Aunt Colleen and Peter dropped by later that morning to open the gifts we'd given to each other. Afterwords, we packed up the kids (plus their favorite toy) and drove to my parents' house for our "second Christmas". Three of my siblings were there, which made it even more special.

I think that the best gift this year came from a complete stranger. Over the last year my dad became friends with the owner of several fishing fleets in North Carolina. When my dad was down there a few weeks ago, this man told him that he had a gift for my dad's grandchildren (my kids). He apologized for the gift wrapping (his wife was out and he had to wrap it himself) and then gave the package to my dad. When we opened it Christmas day we found that he had carved a large wooden dog for my kids to ride on. The craftsmanship is beautiful and we were so touched that someone we've never met would take so much time to make this beautiful toy for us.

The kids (and Aunt Ashley) on their wooden dog

It was a wonderful Christmas filled with plenty of goodies, family and fun. The added bonus was that this year was a white Christmas.