Apparently They Were Nice

Christmas Eve after church and dinner. On Christmas Eve we always open presents from the family so there were quite a few presents to open (especially from my parents- Thanks Mimi and Poppa) Here they are right before the opening began

Christmas morning- believe it or not this is about 9:00- they woke up around 8 and asked to watch TV while B put the cinnamon rolls in the oven. They actually wanted breakfast before presents (okay- there was some dissent about this but after a vote- breakfast it was)

Finally, they were ready to start tackling the pile of presents.

D got a "meow meow"- it purrs and meows and she is thrilled with it (and I figure it buys us some time before she starts asking for a real kitten)

X opening a game- I wasn't sure how excited he would be about it but they must have it at Latchkey because he was excited about having it at home too

I found the cutest baby dolls for the girls online (thanks to whoever posted the link in a forum I read) They are cute and hip- but not skanky like the Bratz dolls. But more important they are ethnically accurate and ADORABLE.

Checking out the gift cards that were in the bags of "coal" hanging on their stockings. I am pretty sure he is already doing the math to figure out how much he can buy with it

D gets her first gift cards. She was with me when I bought the gift cards and I picked a different card for each person. I got 3 really cute ones for each of the older kids and one for my cousin that had the Target dog on it. This is D really disappointed that she didn't get the doggy card. (This is probably a sign we spend way too much time at Target)

When I was a kid, we used to get to open our "big gift" from our parents on Christmas Eve. The theory was that it wouldn't get lost in the shuffle of all the Santa presents. We used to do that with the kids but now that there are four of them and we have presents from relatives that we open on Christmas Eve also, the "big" gifts were still getting lost in the shuffle. Plus opening it Christmas Eve eliminates some of the excitement and anticipation of the Christmas morning "did I get it??" So this year I wrapped the "big gift" for each of the boys (and one for each girl too) and hid them in my office. We opened all the presents and about the time A and X were trying to hide their disappointment that they didn't get the Nintendo DSi's that they had requested, B "found" a clue in A's stocking. It took the boys a second to figure out what was going on but next thing they knew they were on a scavenger hunt through the house following clues to find their presents. They loved it and I think a new tradition was born.

Reading the second clue

In the basement trying to figure out where they have to go next

Out in the garage finding one of the last clues

Getting ready to open his present

Happiness (and yes they did each get a DSi)