Christmas Day!

We had a wonderful Christmas day. The kids slept in until about 8AM. I heard Claire wake up and expected she would come in our room. Instead, she bolted for the stairs excited to see what Santa had brought. We called her name and quickly stopped her, reminding her that we had to all go down together. Crazy kid. We got the kids and our cameras ready, turned on the Christmas lights, and waited at the bottom of the stairs to see their reactions to what they found. This was what they came downstairs to:

Santa got each girl slippers. Amelia also got a Fisher Price purse. Maddie got a soft Elsa doll and a Minnie Mouse purse. Claire got an Anna doll and Popcorn and her puppies. The older girls also had their cradles from daddy.

We let the kids get their Santa presents and stockings before breakfast. It's interesting to see the different methods. Claire, like Chris and me, took things out one at a time to look at and unwrap. (About half of their stocking gifts are wrapped.) Amelia was young enough that she needed a little help and encouragement to figure it all out. And then there's Maddie. Her technique? Just dump everything out of the stocking and go crazy with the stuff, mostly by eating the food. She dove right into her chocolate and pistachios. She is super sweet and loves to share though. This method causes her to miss a lot that's in her stocking. I remember this technique from last year too. Maybe one of these year's she'll slow down a bit.

Claire meeting the puppies. There were 5 including the runt of the litter. She named them quickly. :)

Guiding Amelia to her stocking.

Claire with her My Little Pony charm bracelet. 

Maddie sorting through her dumped pile of stocking goodies. Amelia nicely tried out her headband.

Amelia tried on her slippers over her footed pajamas. Toasty warm!

Claire and Maddie each got their own old bay spice. We are true Marylanders. :)

Amelia checking out her purse.

Maddie had a lot of great expressions opening presents. She was always so happy and surprised. Life through the eyes of a child is so precious.

Amelia got a book that doubles as a truck. She loves to play with cars. So cute!

Amelia testing out the sturdiness of the cradles. Haha. 

After stockings, we had our traditional Christmas coffee cake that Chris made the day before. Yum! Our main goal for Christmas was to make the presents last. We didn't want to rush through them and then be sad it was over so fast. We did a pretty good job too since the kids finished unwrapping their presents around 3 and Chris and I finished around 4. Chris and I opened presents with the kids, but they were so excited that we didn't get through all of our's. We also wanted to enjoy seeing what we got each other which was a little easier if the kids were happily playing with their new toys at the time instead of rushing us to finish so they could open another present.

We also took time to play with some things. One of the first presents was the tent we got the girls. I was ridiculously excited about this gift. I had been eyeing it for months. They wanted to set it up and play with it right away, so we did!

Later, Claire opened her pop-up princess game. She wanted to play it right then, so we played a couple of rounds.

A while later, the kids opened a movie we got them - Mr. Peabody and Sherman. Since they were excited to watch it, we went downstairs and had a cuddly family movie time. It was awesome!

Somewhere in there, we also had some frozen pizza for lunch and then continued opening presents. We had a great time, and I much prefer enjoying the presents as we go instead of quickly unwrapping everything. It makes the day last longer and it's fun to try things out instead of getting to the end and having trouble remembering your gifts.

I was soooo excited for this gift - doll and me matching outfits. They LOVE them!

Chris jokingly told Maddie he wanted a duck-billed platypus for Christmas thinking there wasn't such a thing. Haha. That's what she got him!

Opening the diapers and wipes I made them.

Maddie LOVES her Hello Kitty chair.

Chris was so excited for his fleece owl pajama pants. (He helped pick out the material, so he knew about this gift.) It was even wrapped in owl wrapping paper.

I love that cheesy grin. Amelia got a little Minnie Mouse chair which she sits in ALL THE TIME. Here she's opening the quiet book I made her.

Claire really liked Maddie's chair too. She ended up ordering one with some Christmas money so they could all have chairs. (I looked into getting one for her, but all the reviews said they'd be too small for her age. So much for that idea.)

Another favorite present for Maddie - a Minnie Mouse umbrella.

Amelia loves to sit with a blanket on her lap while she sucks her thumb and twirls her hair. Here, she's using her new hooded towel with her name on it from Aunt Kendra and Uncle Jamie as a blanket. She had to stop sucking to say "eeee" though.

That night, we had a real Christmas dinner with ham, hash brown casserole, rolls, salad, sweet potato pudding, and a peppermint chocolate yule log for dessert. Yum!

Cuddling Christmas night watching something on Chris's phone. Sister love.

You may have noticed many outfit changes throughout the day. They liked to try on whatever new they got. :p

It was a wonderful Christmas. There is nothing more magical than watching your own children's faces see gifts from Santa and presents from us. A lot of love went into thinking of gifts for each other and it's a great way to express our love. I feel very grateful and blessed that we have means to provide an abundant Christmas for our children (though I know it would be wonderful even if funds were much less.) Until next year Christmas...