December 25, 2008

On Christmas morning the boys and I woke up a bit later and after eating breakfast and playing a bit with their new toys, we went over to Nana's.

At my parent's house, we have a card giving tradition. Probably 10 years back my Dad put Christmas cards in the tree for us- my sister, myself and my mom. We would receive these beautiful Christmas cards that he picked out -they meant much to us- knowing he chose just the right one. The tradition has evolved and Leigha and I now also give the cards to my parents, as well as each other. We all put our cards on the tree as we fill them out and they sit on the tree until Christmas morning, where -in probably the only silent moment of the whole day -we all sit and soak in the words written in the cards.

This year the boys got their first cards. Too young to understand, of course. But wow, how wonderful that this is a meaningful tradition we can pass down the line.


Then it was time for opening gifts! A big hit was the Doctor set Auntie Leigha got the boys. All three wanted to be Drs, not a patient in sight. So, Pops was a good sport and acted as the patient for them. Shots to be given, band aids to be applied, and blood pressure had to be checked -all at the same time!





After the presents were opened and loved on, we decided to kill time while waiting for Don to get off of work. Play doh was the obvious answer. The kids loved all the colors of dough and the new toys that cut it up and sliced it out. Me, on the other hand, I am not a big fan. It was not so much the annoyance of all the swirled colors, but the mess! Goodness, the mess. The boys loved it all though and even helped clean it up in the end- just in time for Daddy to come join us!

For the rest of the night we just had great family time. Grandma and Poppa (Don's parents) were here in town to have a family Christmas and the boys had such a fun night playing with them on the activity center Aunt Leigha had given them for Christmas.

We can also thank Aunt Leigha for this picture. Without all of us sitting and playing foosball at once, we would have passed through an entire Christmas holiday without a single picture of the five of us.


Finally the night had settled down as we all sat in the living room and took turns playing Dad's new game of Ms Pac-Man. A memorable Christmas for all, and I can't wait to do it again next year!