Christmas Day

Caleb checking out the big brothers to see if he's doing it right.

I expected that we'd be woken up early on morning, but our kids went downstairs and watched TV without waking us (whose kids are they?!?!).  I'm pretty sure when I was a child that I woke my parents up as soon as I could on Christmas morning.  Around 7:45, I heard them and got up.

The tree with Santa's presents front and center in green paper.

The stockings.  Some year I'll get around to having the names actually embroidered on them. 

Once everyone was up and all the adults had coffee in hand, we read through the Advent book for the last time this year.  We opened all 24 previously opened doors.  Then, we opened door #25 for the first time.  It said "God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him will live forever."

Reading the Advent book.  This was our first year to own it and I wish we had bought it sooner. 

I love that this was the final day as its the most important part.  Yes, Christmas is about Jesus' birth.  His birth is obviously important.  God coming in human flesh is amazing.  But its why he came that we celebrate.  He came to save us. 

After that we moved on to stockings.  The kids were delighted to find Ninjago underwear and other goodies in there including chickfila coupons, new toothbrushes and other small toys and candy.

Reaching deep into the stocking

New Slippers

Apparently, underwear is an exciting present if its Ninjago-themed.

Next up, they each opened their one present that Santa had left.  They were all confident that the present waiting under the tree was exactly what they had asked Santa for earlier this month.  Aaron opened his to discover Bowser Junior (a Mario stuffed animal).  He was unhappy that it was Bowser Junior (who wears a bib) instead of the regular Bowser, even though he very specifically asked for Bowser Junior.  I'm just lovin the fickleness and irrationality of our handsome four-year-old these days--you never know what is going to upset him.  He threw the stuffed animal on the floor and started crying.  Oh my!  I started to think it would be a long day.

Aaron about 10 seconds before throwing Bowser down.

The other two boys opened theirs to discover the Diddy Kong and Donkey Kong animals they asked Santa to bring.  Thankfully I figured out which twin asked for which toy (I had forgotten to write it down when they asked Santa for it and had to trick them into reminding me again--note to self, write this stuff down next year because I can no longer count on my memory) and they were happy.  By the time they were done opening their presents, Aaron had come around and was excited about his toy.

We opened a few more small presents and then had breakfast.  Growing up, my mom always made scrambled eggs, bacon and Danish pancakes on Christmas morning.  I have continued the tradition.  This year, James was the winner for eating the most pancakes.  I'm pretty sure he had 5 or 6.

After breakfast, we finished up our presents and spent the rest of the day playing.

Around 4, we had one last "family" present to open. 

Growing up, my  mom always saved a bigger present for late in the day so that it made the day more exciting.  This is another tradition I'm carrying on.  Before the boys opened the present, we told them it was a present for all of us, Jon & I included.  When they opened it, they screamed.  It was a Wii system (the older version) with some games.  Mario Kart was one of the games and since they delight in ALL things Mario, they were thrilled.  The twins screamed "Uncle Mack got us a Wii."  Jon & I were confused why Uncle Mack was getting the credit.  I guess when we said it was for us too, they assumed that someone other than us had bought it.  We did set them straight on the fact that it was from us.

Not only did Caleb photobomb this picture, he is also showing that I have yet to take his bottle away, even though he's 18 months old (a good 5 months older than all his older brothers were when they had their last bottle). 

 **Quick side note, we had bought this system used about a month ago.  I had asked Jon to test it because the last thing I wanted to do was give it to them only to discover we couldn't get it to work.  Jon did test it and it worked great. 

Mario is representing.  They're all wearing their new Mario Brothers shirts with the new Wii.

On Christmas, he hooked it up on a short break from cooking our dinner and couldn't get it to work.  We kept getting the message that "it couldn't read the disk."  Jon googled the problem and learned it probably meant the laser reader was broken and the system wasn't worth much.  The kids were surprisingly calm and chill about it.  Several hours later when they were all tucked into bed and we were sitting around, I googled the problem and found a different website that said to make sure the buttons were above the disc opening, not below.  I looked at ours and they were below.  Short story:  We had the Wii upside down and that's why it didn't work.  We had a good laugh.  The next day we filled the boys in and finally got around to playing some Mario Kart.

Here are a few more pictures from the day that I like because they remind me of the sweet moments that the boys had.

Grandma & Grandpa reading the photo books that the boys made for them.

Caleb (the boy who doesn't usually play with toys) actually playing with one of his new presents from Grandma.

Playing with his other present from Grandma.  Clearly Grandma has a knack for picking out good toys.

A big hug for Pa Lynn to say thanks for a present.

James almost knocked Grandma Mary over with his running hug.

We finished off the night by singing Happy Birthday to Jesus and having birthday cake.