I want to get these days recorded here before I forget details and moments.
I’m so thankful to have the pictures to look at and remember.
It’s long been a rule that no one is allowed to get their stockings until after 7am. You must stay in your bed until 7am and “woe be to you” if you wake any other person in the house up…..especially before then. The last few years….no one’s woken up before 7am….unless you count Xandra waking up in the middle of the night and going down to sleep on the couch until morning.
This year, the kids got up and even took Judah up to open his stocking. Sometimes, having the older ones who are able to take care of the little ones really turns out in your favor.
This is the first year EVER that I didn’t get up to see them open their stockings. I was TOO tired. In fact, I stayed in bed until after 8am…..until finally the kids could wait on longer and came down to wake me up.
This was my view as I walked up the stairs from the basement……the wreckage and aftermath of the stockings.
We also make the kids eat breakfast first, before we open any presents….just drawing out the agony a little bit longer…..
Normally, breakfast is a whole lot fancier than this, but this year……we rocked the cereal and I even let the older 4 kids have “normal” cereal.
After Breakfast, we moved over to the couches to open presents. I manned the camera and enjoyed my Christmas treat of coffee…..
There were a few cuddles while we waited for everyone to get there.
Jon passed out the presents and the unwrapping commenced….
There was a lot of happy squeals and shouts as the presents were opened.
After Christmas Eve, Judah had finally figured out what the whole deal with presents was.
He was very excited to unwrap….
….and unwrap….
and to keep unwrapping…..he must have worked on that gift for about 10 minutes. It was pretty cute.
It was a great Christmas morning. It was a bit more subdued that usual, but even that was okay…
After the presents were opened, there was a bit of a lull as the kids enjoyed their gifts…
It was so good to just have a “normal, boring” Christmas. No Hospital visits or illness to bring stress to the day….just our family…..together. Perfect!
<
The kids played nicely together while we got the dinner ready.
Everyone got changed out of their jammies before we ate dinner. The girls were pretty excited to get new clothes and jewlery….how fun! It’s so nice to see Geli looking so healthy….last years photos are not as cheery!
Daddy and his boys…
After dinner, the excitement of the day was started to show and the little ones were wearing down…
We played a few games….
…..where did you go?….
PEEK-A-BOO!
And the big kids played games too….
Finally, it was bedtime and we shooshed them all off to bed because we had one more day of fun still to go……
If you’d like to see the whole set of our Christmas Day Pictures, click here……
So many beautiful pictures of the kids ,and it sounds like you had a great family day. I have not looked at the extra ones yet as I just wanted to check the e mail before I go upstairs to do my dishes and meal clean up. We went to Nellie Clarks Funeral this afternoon,it was at the Hendersons Funeral Home. It was so good to see Mark Lewis. It was his Grandmas’ funeral. He said he would be around tto-morrow.still. Is staying at Al and Gwen Shmunks place.(Carries Mom and Dads in Langley.) It was so good to see you all and “Thank you so much for inviting us.” Hope you all have a good night . Love Grandma
dropping in to say hello great photos happy new year
I did an archive search through to last Christmas to see the pictures. The change in Geli is so astounding and brings so much hope to my heart. You can SEE her healing. She is so much more colourful and vibrant this year. It was so painful to see her in the pictures last Christmas, her eyes were so full of pain and discomfort. I’m so thankful for her continued healing progress and the strength & blessings that your family is experiencing. I’m hoping for only and all the best for you all in 2012!