(Catching up) Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was lovely.  We started the day early with a visit from Sarah Jane who had found a book from Santa at the end of her bed.  He brought her The Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusan.  What was most exciting though was that he had written in it "To Sarah Jane, Love Santa 2012" which she read aloud to me!

When the rest of the kiddos woke up we headed downstairs to see what Santa had delivered.  The boys were a bit dazed (see below.)  You might be dazed too if you suddenly found yourself sitting on a potty holding a giant soccer ball in footie pajamas while someone took your picture.  They figured it out pretty quickly after this.

 Here is Eli's "Cheeeese" face

 There were some tears.  I don't remember what about.

 They were fixed by some "Santa Milk" (e.g., Egg Nog. Anna is a big fan.)

The boys got phones from Santa as well as potties, soccer balls and other fun stuff.  The girls got a lot of art projects and whoopee cushions which were a hit.

 Next up was oatmeal as we waited for the folks from 690 to arrive.  They were moving slowly and arrived in less than full strength.  Grandma and Aunt Ellie had been felled by Roby's flu.  Zeke was tottering on the edge (soon to fall over) and poor Danise succumbed the next day.

 Despite the reduced (and subdued) guests, I got to check off  "use wedding china once a year" for 2012.  We had a spinach and Gruyere breakfast strata, bacon, nut bread from Aunt Whitney and chocolate croissants.  It was yummy but we missed Grandma and Aunt Ellie.

After breakfast we started on the presents.  We made it about 2/3's of the way through before everyone fell apart.  Much better than last year!  The highlight was probably the play cardboard house from Amy.  It was the second present opened, probably could have ended Christmas right there.  The kids immediately entered and all declined to come out. 

This Christmas was fun to see Sarah Jane start to understand giving as opposed to just getting.  She told Dave she wanted to make me a bird house and they did.  Anna helped paint it.  She also requested a pink princess dress for Anna (and then was an excellent sport when Anna decided what she really wanted was the yellow dress she'd "picked out" for Sarah Jane), blocks for the boys and a sweatshirt for Daddy.  All great presents. Made me very proud!   (Anna below sporting the yellow dress she "gave" SJ, checking out her loot.)

We finished Christmas at Uncle Dave's.  The kids ate Pirate Booty and chased Daddy Dave around the living room.  Uncle Dave, Uncle Phil and Aunt Elizabeth all got sick the next day.  Potent flu.  No pictures.  I was beat.  Even writing this makes me tired.  Good thing Christmas comes just once a year!