A wooden school bus with 16 little people to go inside from the 10000 Villages Store. They were very excited to see it, apparently they played with it in the store when we were in Black Mountain. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and eating pizza and watching The Polar Express (the new holiday favorite... well, tied with Rudolph I think!) Then we left Oreos for Santa and 9 small carrots for the reindeer (can't forget Rudolph... the carrots help his nose to glow!) and off to bed. Grace had a hard time going down and kept waking up due to a flair up with her eczema. I set up the tree house doll house and pulled out the wrapped Santa's gifts, brought Elijah to bed with me and turned in.
This morning, Elijah woke up earl (6:00) and was quiet but fidgety, so at 6:30 I told him he could go wake up Grace and Jerry. He did this by throwing open the door and jumping up and down yelling, "SANTA CAME LAST NIGHT!!!! SANTA CAME LAST NIGHT!!!!"
I allowed them to come into the living room while Jerry woke up a bit, but insisted they wait to open their presents until he came out. Since the tree house was unwrapped, they got to see it and spend a minute playing with it... and I do mean a minute...
After playing a minute, they (quasi-) patiently waited another one for Jerry. Then it was onto the other presents. Elijah was excited to see if he got a Fire truck from Santa:
And Grace was excited to see that she got a doll that came with it's own puppy!!!
Grace did not unwrap presents to the speed that suited Elijah, so he ended up opening the majority of the combined presents, which were all books. He gave Grace another doll and Grace gave him a tow truck and tractor.
We opened stockings as well... and by opened I mean turned upside down and shook everything out!
After Elijah and Grace finished opening their presents, we realized that it was actually light enough outside for the outside present to be revealed. After pealing the wrapping paper off the window, the kids scurried into their shoes to climb (briefly) on the new climbing dome.
Then, at Elijah's insistence, we came back in to open MORE PRESENTS! And since his (and Grace's) were already opened... it was on to Jerry and mine. Jerry started with his BIG gift...
GOLF CLUBS!!!!
And moved on to some video games and golfing accessories. Jerry came up with the theme of date night for me and gave me a couple Anne Taylor tops and a pair of pants, a calendar, and a gift certificate to Ulta. My parents gave us some first edition books and Jerry an iTune gift card. Overall quite a load.
After some clean up, the kids vanished into the toy room to pull out older toys and to play with the beads they got in the stockings (go figure) but later returned to try out some of the new toys too. I feel like Christmas is always overwhelming to kids and they need the security of the familiar to not overload. It makes me happy that we set a small budget and stick to it. The most expensive thing we bought was the climbing dome, and it is something they will play on for years to come!
It was starting to drizzle a little outside, but it was warm, so we put on rain gear and went outside to get some energy out. Grace was mega interested in the dome and went back again and again, Elijah built his own "treehouse" and both got some energy out.
After the playing it was time for some pizza for lunch. Both kids wanted to be like Dadu and stand up while they were eating...considering they had candy canes and York Peppermint Patties (along with a nutragrain bar thrown in for good measure) for breakfast... sure why not...
And now, Grace and Jerry are passed out and Elijah has been whispering to me from his room while I watch a movie and type... though, I think he may have passed out... right in time for me to wake him up, poor guy.
All in all a VERY Merry Christmas has been had by all! I hope the same is true for you and yours!
2 comments:
What a simply mahvelous holiday for the Jonesies! I love to see the smiling faces. So glad you had a good holiday! You guys deserve it for sure!!!!
Looking at the picture of Jerry, Grace, and Elijah eating pizza, Elijah is getting TALL. Wow!!! He's going to be tall when he gets older. They both are growing up so fast and just ADORABLE!!
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