Two years ago we celebrated Christmas with our boys and a picture of our daughter. Last year we celebrated Christmas with our boys AND our daughter though she was too little to really delve into the meaning or the presents. This year, all is changed. This year we celebrated Christmas with our boys and our daughter who all three thoroughly enjoyed themselves from the moment they sprinkled the reindeer food on our front lawn Christmas Eve until the moment they crashed after watching A Christmas Story late Christmas night. Colin deemed it the "best Christmas ever!" while Pryce squealed loudly with delight after opening each gift he received. MK summed it up when she awoke from her nap asking, "Please may I open more presents?" Thankfully, there were some gifts left to be opened and the celebrating continued. A new tradition was started this year too.....the children, all three of them, had a campout in our gameroom on Christmas Eve. This tradition is one that I had with my siblings growing up and would like to see my children continue. It was so cute. When Mason-Kate realized that she was going to have an opportunity to be included in the campout, she happily cheered, "oh, thank you mommy, thank you!".....needless to say she was the LAST one to fall asleep due to her excitement. And at 5:30 am, the giggles began. And at 6:00 am, the allowed wake-up time, the children were all three on the monitor shouting, "Mom, Dad, get up, It's CHRISTMAS! Merry Christmas!" So with that, mom, dad, and Gran and Pop were summoned to the top of the stairs for the annual Christmas morning picture.....and then it was time for Pop to do his Santa check - Pop (my father) is always the first one down just to make sure Santa has come and gone. The next hour was spent swimming through the gifts from Santa. At one point, Colin looked over and said, "Hmmm, this is strange, I received safety goggles for a bb gun, but there is no gun." A few moments later, Ryan requested a screw driver from his toolbox because, as most everyone knows, toys are not exactly that easy to get into these days. Colin jumps up, heads to the garage to fetch the requested screw driver, he opens the door and wouldn't you know there were shouts of delight as he said, "Hey, here is my bb gun, he brought it! And it is on a ping-pong table!" Meanwhile, MK was photographing our Christmas morning with her new princess camera and diapering her new babydoll over and over - babies have a lot of accidents, you know. Needless to say, MK got discouraged with the whole diapering extravaganza and the baby now lies asleep naked in our den, no diaper in site. It was a beautiful day through and through!
Some things haven't changed in a year....I just don't think MK likes early morning photos no matter what day it is.
With safety goggles properly placed over his eyes, Colin fired his first shot and hit the homemade target!
The boys' comment this morning was, "I hope that Santa really made our Star Wars action figures because if he didn't, it cost him a lot of money to buy this stuff for us!"
I had to post this....P was being so sweet playing with MK in her new Princess tent. When he saw me with the camera, he quickly jumped out and said, "Hey, I don't want anyone to see me playing in a Princess tent!" I told him it was so nice of him to play with her, so he jumped back in and then gave me this look when I snapped the shot....
One memory that I know my children will cherish is having Gran and Pop here with us on Christmas. Each year they wake up on Christmas Eve asking "When will they be here? Can we call them? Will they be here soon?" and each year they arrive with bells on and share the excitement that is plentiful in our home!
