Christmas 2011 Part 1

I love Christmas morning.  I always will.  Even before we had kids, I had a hard time sleeping on Christmas Eve!  On our first Christmas together, Dave and I both woke up pre-5:00 and whispered to each other until about 6:00.  I'm not sure why we were whispering - there wasn't anyone else in the house to wake up.
One of the best parts of getting married is blending traditions from both families.  And at Christmastime there are so many traditions to choose from!  We also made our own traditions and therefore custom-built our perfect family Christmas.  The way we handle waking up on Christmas morning comes from my side of the family.  We do it almost exactly the same as my childhood.

Before bed on Christmas Eve, I explained to the girls that no one could get up until 6:00 a.m. or until Bronson woke up, which ever came first.  Of course, Bronson came first.  He woke up at 5:30.  The girls were wide awake and waiting.  They all climbed into bed with us.  David tried to make them sleep some more, but it was clear that they were too excited for any of that sleep nonsense, so he dragged himself out of dreamland.  Josh heard us talking and climbed into bed with us as well.  I LOVE snuggling in bed and anticipating the "big reveal" with our little maniacs.  They (we) can hardly stand the excitement.  I make everyone use the restroom (or get a diaper change) and brush their teeth while Dad goes out to see if Santa remembered to come.  So far, Santa's never forgotten (growing up, my dad always tried to convince us that Santa hadn't come, but we knew he was joking: "Daaaaaaad!!!").  David also turns on all the Christmas lights, plays some Christmas music, and takes a "before" picture of the tree.  Then he calls to us and says he's ready.  We all line up by age and flitter down the hall to the tree.  It's the most intensely happy feeling on earth!

Before...  I wish you could see those pictures on the wall - they're of each of our children at 6 weeks old wearing Santa hats.

Blurry action photo of entering the room for the first time.

Checking out their Pillow Pets.

Since we started the festivities before 6:00 a.m. and church didn't start until 1:00p.m., we had plenty of time to enjoy our gifts from Santa Claus and open our presents under the tree as well.  We got SO MUCH STUFF!  I thought we were taking it easy this year because frankly, we're running out of space for new toys, but somewhere along the way, we abandoned that idea and ended up with more than ever. One of my favorite parts of the morning was when David opened his present from my parents - a Luggable Loo.  He was excited to get it because he's into emergency preparedness, but I'm sure he wasn't expecting to get a portable toilet for Christmas.  He laughed and said, "I'm gonna try it out right now!!!" which made us all scream!

I like how Josh stopped everything to read his new Cars book.

Dave got a lot of books, as usual and to his delight. 

Bronson got several fancy electronic toys, but he spent the whole morning playing with his $3 stackable barrels (and sneaking and eating chocolate).

The last gift we opened was a book I made for our family.  Alison read it to us.

The aftermath...