Christmas Morning

Our kids gave us the best Christmas gift this year: THEY SLEPT IN! Ava was the first awake (which is a rarity), coming into our room excitedly at 8 am. She hadn't even gone into the living room yet, but had seen the loot sticking out of her stocking. She quickly woke her little brother up, who was groggy, until Ava exclaimed, "Jax, hurry! Santa came!" The little dude got the biggest grin, hopped out of his bed and ran down the hall with his sister.

Like all kids on Christmas morning, ours went a little crazy! I was sure Ava would tear through her presents much more quickly than Jax, but the opposite was true. She gently opened each gift, and stared at each gift, looking it over, before moving on to the next one. Jax on the other hand, ripped off the wrapping paper, glanced at the gift inside, threw said gift into his "loot box" (Andy gave each kids a box to put their presents in) and was immediately asking for the next one. Fortunately, he was patient when we asked him to wait for Ava which allowed us to stretch out the Christmas morning present-opening, well that, and the fact that Santa wrapped some of the presents with impenetrable wrapping paper. Seriously, Andy could barely tear through it.







































All Ava really wanted this year was a Barbie house. Jax asked only for monster trucks (surprise, surprise!) and a scooter.  After all the gifts were unwrapped we asked Ava if she got everything she wanted. She was so sweet, saying, "Yes. I love all my presents. There's just one thing missing. But maybe I'll get my Barbie Dream House for my birthday." What she didn't know was that Daddy had assembled her Dream House the night before and set it up in the play room. So, we slyly told her that maybe she could take her new Barbies into the playroom and introduce them to her old ones. She was reluctant at first, but when we finally convinced her, here's what happened:

 

For the next five hours, we only saw her when she came out of the playroom for a drink or to hug us and tell us how much she loved her Barbie house (a gift from Mommy and Daddy). Jax, on the other hand, acquired what Andy and I refer to as "Christmas ADD." He moved from one toy to the other in mere seconds. One moment he'd be playing with a monster truck, zooming it across a room, but on his way to pick it up on the other side of the room, he'd be distracted by another toy and begin playing with that. This went on all day. He just didn't know what he wanted to play with the most. He built a train track with Daddy, a monster truck jump with Mommy, read books, raced monster trucks, did a puzzle...

This is my fifth Christmas as a mom, and by far my favorite. Ava is old enough to understand the whole process, to be excited when she woke up Christmas morning, to know some gifts are from Santa and some from Mommy and Daddy and to spend the whole magical day in her pajamas enjoying her favorite gifts. Jax, for the first year, was jumping-out-of-his-skin giddy about opening gifts and he too spent the day in his Christmas jammies playing. Andy and I were just as excited as the kids, not because of gifts (although, Andy got me a great one), but our hearts were just so full watching Ava and Jax and the joy that beamed from their  little smiles. Special memories were made that morning, and it's a Christmas I will treasure my whole life.