Buck and I debated back and forth whether or not to build the girls their doll house before Christmas or on Christmas Day. In the end, we stayed up til past midnight assembling the giant addition to our home :) It looked so much smaller at the store . . . covered in sheets, the girls had a good chance at guessing what it might be since this has topped their Christmas list for months!!
This year we managed to sleep in to a decent hour, yeah! Before breakfast, we dug into the Christmas stockings which gave the children something to enjoy while daddy worked on breakfast. Thanks to our new four waffle waffle iron (thanks Grandpa Perry!) breakfast took half the time it normally does. With our tummies full, we began the fun and blessedly unrushed process of opening gifts. Rather than just tearing off paper, we ask the kids who the gift is from (because so many family members send them special things this time of year). Once it is opened, we debox it and let them play with it right away. Because of the good guessing on the doll house, this was the first to be revealed. Next came the Barbie dolls "with respectable careers" that Grandma Judi sent for the girls :) (I love that she picked ones with respectable careers :) And to complete the set--the girls opened up a Ken doll, because the Barbies needed someone to be married to--I guess I should have thought that through and purchased two Ken dolls--hmm. That might be on the post-Christmas shopping list :)
By this time, the boys were beginning to wonder if they were going to be opening any gifts, so we let them pick out their own brightly wrapped packages. I tell you what, it was like excitement after excitement as each gift was opened.
By 10 AM we were only about half way though, when there came a knock at the door! Uncle Cory arrived early (there was a lot of snow on Christmas Eve which made for a BEAUTIFUL sparkly white Christmas!) My brother likes to find gifts that parents might not think to buy their kids, but are always really cool. This year, (think back to the movie "Big") he found the girls an FAO Schwartz floor piano! It comes in a sturdy red cloth case and plays all sorts of songs in addition to the happy feet being able to play individual notes. We didn't break out the "chopsticks" on the first go, but the girls have figured out how to keep the music rolling--what a fun present!The boys have an endless collection of Hot Wheels (partially due to potty training :) My brother realized we didn't have any tracks for the wee little cars to fly down, duh! Never even crossed my mind! But Buck remembers building with the neon orange plastic roadways, and my bro strung them across his room for years! The look on the boys' faces is pretty telling of their reaction to this sweet gift! The other is a magnetic car that does loops on a track with a zip line feature--totally awesome!
Cory stayed and watched as the kids continued opening their special gifts from family and from us. Buck gave me a really cute new Broncos shirt and lots of chocolate! :) The kids went shopping for me with their own money and apparently the shop owners in town were charmed by their shoppin' for mama efforts and threw in some extras. They are so excited to see me nibbling their chocolates (I got a lot of chocolates :) and wearing the shirt they picked out for me. Fun stuff!Buck's co-workers are very amused that he likes to have a cigar, oh about once every year or so :) When we were having Caelan's birthday party, my brother and I made a quick visit to a smoker's outlet--a place I've never set foot into before! But the humidor filled with cigars was kind of a fun experience. I got to pick out several varieties (mostly by how cool the label looked, ha!) and discovered there are flavored cigars--like vanilla and cherry. Months ago, Buck saw an Antiques Roadshow where a man brought in a collection of antique Zippo lighters. He got so excited about them, that I ordered him one for Christmas. Unfortunately it didn't arrive until after Christmas, but I told him about it on Christmas Day and he says its the coolest gift he got, yeah! I did good! :)
After all the gifts were open, we let the kids just enjoy them. We three grown ups moved into the kitchen to learn a new board game my bro brought along--7 Wonders. Lots of rules, but very interesting! We had fun playing while the kids had fun playing :)
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