As I said in my last post, Jack was pretty disappointed when he woke up on Christmas and saw that there was no snow... he thought that no snow meant it wasn't Christmas! After I explained to him, though, that Santa's sleigh didn't have to have snow to land, he looked a little more hopeful. And then, when I reminded him that we should check on the milk and cookies and stockings to see if Santa had been here, he lit up! He ran to the cookies and yelled "Mom! Santa ate the cookies but he left one bite there!" I told him that Santa must have been too full from the yummy cookies Jack made him to finish another bite! Then he checked the stockings and was thrilled to see that they were full!
Since Dave was working Christmas Eve, we had to wait for him to get home before we could open our presents. It was so hard for Jack to wait, but he did a great job being patient. Since Dave wouldn't be home for another few couple hours the kids and I had breakfast, and I let the boys open their stockings while we waited for daddy.
Jack had a great time playing with his gifts from Santa... especially the lantern, which I explained to him that Santa thought it would be a good reading lamp for him! Jack is allowed to bring one book to bed with him each night, and with this lamp hanging on his bed he has enough light to read, and he didn't have to get back out of bed to turn off the light! That Santa is so smart! Jack was thrilled about the lamp and played with it all morning as we waited for Dave to come home. Here he is showing off his lamp, one of his new Toy Story 3 figurines, and his too-small jammies!
By the way, Jack didn't think about my stocking until our morning was all over and he noticed that I hadn't opened my stocking! I hadn't planned on opening it unless he asked me to- Santa had gotten me 4 bags of Mint M&Ms and I didn't really want to share! LOL! Anyway, our Christmas morning went really well. Jack was sufficiently surprised and excited for each gift and exclaimed and oohed and aahed for everything! Sam really wasn't interested in opening gifts at all. He did open one and he liked it, but that was all he wanted to open and I didn't force him or bug him about it. As a result he still had a present to open 2 weeks later! he was much more interested that time!
I saved the best for last, of course. Jack had asked for 2 main gifts, GeoTrax (he got some more track, but no new engines), and Chuggington. When someone asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he'd almost always answer "Chuggington Toys!" So I made sure to get those for him... and I made sure that he opened all his other gifts before opening these! We got him most of the engines and cars, the roundhouse with some track, and the Wilson Carrying Case for the engines and cars. He was so excited when he opened them, and I was thrilled at his reaction! If the carrying case hadn't come for free with my purchase I probably wouldn't have gotten it for him, and that was his favorite part of the gift! He loves that his trains and train cars all have a place to sleep at night, and he always makes sure that the appropriate engines are in the appropriate stalls in the roundhouse and that all the rest of the engines and cars have a stall in the carrying case- which he calls the Wilson roundhouse. That gift was definitely a hit!
While Jack played, I put Sam down for a nap and started working on frosting the cookies to take to Aunt Sandra's house and making the cinnamon rolls that I was supposed to take to brunch at my mom's house (yes, I know I had already given my boys breakfast... I knew Jack wouldn't eat anything at my mom's house since he'd be too excited. I was right.). When Sam woke up early (poor kid had a horrible nap that day) Dave helped me finish frosting the cookies while I got the boys dressed and we loaded up the car to get to my mom's house, where my family was waiting for us! When we got there, Jack told Grammy and everyone about how Santa came and left one bite of cookie and that he "got the Chuggington toys, just like I been wanting for such a long time!" Dave and I ate while the boys played, and then we all gathered in the living room for more Christmas!
First, everyone opened their stockings. Well, the boys did anyway... the rest of us were having too much fun watching them!
Then we all sat back and relaxed as Jack helped each of us pass out our gifts, and we started our not-as-systematic-as-in-years-past gift-opening procedures!
Then we took our traditional family Christmas photo! Unfortunately, the one of my family from my camera is out of focus, and I didn't have any of my whole family together.
Luckily, though, my mom sent me the pics she got with her camera!
Jack, of course, was really excited to see Santa! Especially since he knew that Santa had a gift for him! He sat so patiently waiting for Santa to call his name, and as soon as he did he yelled "That's me! I'm Jackson!" and with a huge smile on his face he jumped off of daddy's lap and ran up to Santa! I told him that I wanted him to sit on his lap and smile and say cheese before he could open his present, and he followed directions! He even made sure to tell Santa thanks for the gift! And of course, after he opened it he had to run to Santa to show him what he got for Jack!
We didn't stay incredibly long this year. We started later than previous years, and Sam was having a rough time being surrounded by so many people, Dave was tired from work the previous day and he still had to work the next day, Jack was having a blast but really wanted to get home to play with his Chuggington toys, and I like to keep my boys happy. Once again, we had had a great Christmas!
Here are a few more random Christmas pics:
