At 5:00 on Christmas Eve we went to church for the Christmas Eve service. After a lazy day, we got everyone bathed and dressed so we needed to snap a few pictures.
We sat with Reese’s BFF’s family and were planning to head home for pizza after church. Instead they invited us to their house for pizza and the kids were so excited. It was a nice night visiting with them. Once Hayes was an hour passed his bedtime we headed home to make cookies for Santa and get ready for bed. Sam was so sad that Thunder Buzz had to leave us. We let the kids get him down for one last hug.
Once the cookies were made, we put them out with some milk for Santa and then the kids were off to bed.
Lance and I were up way later than I thought we would be. We were heading to bed a little before 2:00 and Reese walks in to our room. She was saying her stomach hurt but I think she was just so excited she didn’t understand. I asked her if she wanted me to come lay with her for a little while so I did and we talked and talked. She wanted to know if Santa had come yet and I told her it looked like our stockings were not on the fireplace anymore so he must have. Finally I told her what time I was leaving and she was ready to sleep knowing Santa had come. Just after 7:00 the big kids came in to our room all excited that Santa had come. When we bought our house I didn’t even think about what Christmas would look like here but as we were putting things out we realized the kids would be able to see all that Santa brought. Santa did a pretty good job keeping things out of direct view but if the kids looked over the bannister they could see their gifts.
As I was about to head out of my room, Reese ran in to tell me all she got from Santa at a million miles an hour. She sat down and said, “The only thing I didn’t get was a karaoke machine. But that’s ok!”
Finally it was time to head down stairs!!
They were both so cute and excited about everything. Sam said later that he got all the Power Ranger stuff he wanted! Whew! He wanted a lot!
About ten minutes after we were downstairs we heard Hayes wake up. He could hear the excitement downstairs and was reaching for me to get him out of his crib. He was so excited to see what all the commotion was.
As I was walking down the stairs with him he was trying to dive out of my arms. The second I put him on the ground he took off running.
He didn’t know what to think.
After playing with the gifts Santa brought for a little while, we opened presents from each other.
Both of the big kids were so grateful and said thank you and gave lots of hugs.
When we finished opening up all of our gifts, I started cleaning up a bit. As I was taking some things to the kitchen I asked Reese to grab Santa’s cookie plate and bring it to the kitchen for me. It turned out Santa had left another note under his plate that we hadn’t seen before. On the note it gave us a clue to go to the dining room. In the dining room we found a karaoke CD. Reese said, “Oh! A karaoke CD for when we get a karaoke machine.” I asked her to tell me what songs were on the CD and she found another clue on the back of the case. That clue led us to the movie room where the karaoke machine was set up!!
When Reese got to the basement and saw it, she started jumping up and down and yelling, “A karaoke machine! A karaoke machine!” over and over and over. She was thrilled.
Luckily Santa had set it up so the kids could start singing on it right away.
Around lunch time, Lance’s family came over to spend the rest of the day together. We exchanged gifts and all got some great things. It was a nice afternoon. The kids played with all of their new toys and really enjoyed the day.
I usually start taking all of my Christmas decorations down the day after Christmas. This year I feel like they weren’t up long enough! I have started gathering everything to put away but it is a little sad. Thank goodness we still have a Christmas celebration to look forward to with my family this weekend!!
Now to figure out where all of these new toys are going to go!!
