Christmas 2009

Since we'll be in Illinois from the 23rd-26th and since we like to do the "wake and open gifts" thing here, we opened our Christmas presents this morning. This year, we decided to buy three gifts for each child instead of one and let them buy the stocking stuffers. I took Matthew out and Rob took Ben shopping for those items. The boys had fun and kept telling each other that they did not buy soda for each other. That was Rob's way of helping them keep from spilling the beans.

Rob and I woke up before the kids this morning and started breakfast. The boys got up at 7am and had to wait upstairs until we were ready and Anna had a diaper change, then they grabbed their stockings off the railing as they headed downstairs. We opened our stockings and tried to guess who gave us what. Anna got a box of Reese's pieces from Ben, M & M's from Matthew, and a peanut butter tree from herself. Ben got a candy cane of chocolates from Matthew, a peanut butter tree from Anna, and a dinosaur egg he can grow and hatch from us. Matthew got a candy cane of Runts from Ben, a peanut butter tree from Anna (I had her purchase a package of them to give away), and a little dinosaur thingy he can excavate on his own. We had bought the dinosaur things before we decided to let the kids do stocking stuffers. Rob got a 2 liter of Coke from Ben, Junior Mints from Matthew, and a pb tree from Anna. I got a Hershey bar from Matthew, chips from Ben, pb tree from Anna, and Rob snuck some Lindt chocolates into my stocking (stinker, we weren't supposed to buy gifts for each other this year!)

Stocking stuffers and early-morning Christmas present opening is a tradition on my side. To bring in one of Rob's family's traditions, we start with the youngest child in present opening. Anna ripped into a book right away (ladybug counting book), and also got a Glow Worm (she was instantly attached and has hardly put it down since) and a set of blocks made by her Daddy. Benjamin got the book "If You Give a Moose a Muffin", the Busy Bugs set from Discovery Toys, and a Motor Works train to add to the Motor Works set. Matthew got the book "Puzzle Island" from Discovery Toys, the game Whiz Kids, and a dinosaur play set. Ben is rather jealous of the dinosaur set, but I know he's getting one from Gma F (shh, don't tell!) so it'll even out later.

We had a yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls (or cindy rolls, as Anna calls them) and breakfast pizza. We did have to run an errand, but otherwise we'll hang out here today. Rob will take the boys over to the Market (an eclectic little mall on our block) to see a huge model train display. We've also been working on our "Less is More" gift for the Fulkerson Christmas. We're 8/9 of the way done with it!