Christmas Day

Last year before the kids went to bed on Christmas eve we told them they were not allowed to get up until seven. This year we didn't give any specific time and that proved to be dastardly. Our kids woke up and were out of their beds at 5:45 am! Yeah that was early. But they were excited and so we let them get their stockings and come into our room to open them. Of course no pictures were taken. I can tell you that Ryker tore into his stocking and got all of his stuff opened first, Kenedy and Avynlea were both equally patient while opening their stockings and came in sometime in the middle with their opening. Little Rylee was the last to open her stocking. it was so, so, so cute to see this little girl sitting on the bed with her stocking resting on her little stretched out legs slowly opening her stocking presents. Precious! They all were so excited and loved everything in their stockings. Oh something I just thought of, that night when it was time to go to bed I told the kids to put on their new pajamas again and Rylee looked at me and said "Is Santa leaving our stockings on our bed again?" She thought that wearing the new pajamas meant it would be Christmas again every time she wore them. How cute is that? Too cute! So the kids got done opening their stockings and were anxious to go down and see what Santa left them. Previous years Kefford made the kids get dressed before being allowed to go downstairs. It was something he grew up doing and he somehow implemented it in our home. I have always hated this practice of getting dressed and decided that this year I was going to fight him on it. The kids all wanted to be allowed to wear their pajamas downstairs and I saw nothing wrong with that. Heck I wanted to wear mine. So after many days of arguing about it I finally got my wish. I told Kefford that I would make sure their hair was done but how cute were they going to be wearing their new cute pajamas that I made for them while opening their presents. I won! Yes! Finally after waiting for Kefford to shower and dress and patiently getting their hair done the kids were allowed downstairs. They came down one at a time and they all were good about posing for the camera!

After checking that Santa ate his cookies and the reindeer got their snack the kids admired the tree with the candy canes and all the glorious presents underneath! Once the kids were done looking around at everything we got down to some serious present opening. Kefford told Avynlea she could play Santa this year and hand out the presents but that did not work so well. A lot of the presents I wrote the name on the paper and unless you knew where to look you could not see it and Kefford numbered most of the ones he wrapped so we had to do a lot of helping with the reading and knowing who each present was for.

The first present they got to open was the final gift from my Moms 25 days of Christmas thing she did. This gift has been greatly anticipated by all the kids but mostly Rylee. She was so anxious to get to the bag that was fully packed. So they opened it and found Disney themed silly bands, so fun. they were really excited and loved everything about the 25 days of Christmas thing she did!

So the kids got to open their presents and this year we had a little bit of a theme going on it was the year of the fake outs! Not a lot but enough to make us laugh. A couple days before Christmas Kefford said he wanted to make the two older kids be grateful for what they got and not act bratty if they didn't get what they wished for so he was going to hide the presents and then after we were all done pull them out. I was really worried about this idea because I really did not want tears or bad moods to spoil Christmas. I told him maybe not. But then Kenedy got really snotty about something and I told Kefford lets do it! So we did. We hid the two major presents they were getting behind some books and after everyone was done opening their presents we waited a little bit to see how they were going to react. they acted pretty good, a little quiet but not bad so Kefford pulled out Rykers. As soon as Ryker got it he lit up a little and once he made the first big rip of the paper and saw what it was he was jumping out of his pants he was so excited. We got him the number one item on his wish list a DSi but Kefford took it a step further and got him the limited edition XL red one. He was so happy. He has been wanting one for a couple of years now but this is the first year that he really showed he wanted one. I am glad that we waited till now to give it to him, I think he appreciates it a lot more.

The number one item on Kenedys wish list was a digital camera. Kefford kept teasing her and saying that she already has a camera and it just needs new batteries. She kept saying no it does not take good pictures and that she needs a better one. They would go back and forth all the time like this and so while I know she was really hoping for a new camera, I am not sure what she was thinking about whether she would get one or not. Finally he pulled out her last present and gave it to her, when she pulled off the paper and saw the box she got excited and said "a camera!" Kefford said no that is the box from your Moms camera. She looked bummed but then opened the box to see it really was a new camera just for her. She was also super excited with her gift and I am glad that we were able to make that happen for her!

The third and final fake out came from me to Kefford. He pretty much knew what most of his presents were which is a disappointment for me. I love surprises but Kefford does not care so much but I wanted to give him a surprise. He knew he was getting a new Wii game for Christmas but what he didn't know was that I got him a DVD that he has been wanting for quite a few years. He once saw the movie "Duel" by Steven Spielberg and became a little obsessed with it. Every so often he would look into getting it but then would make a decision to not get it. I finally bought it for him and since i wanted to surprise him I wrapped that up in wrapping paper knowing Kefford would think it was the Wii game and I wrapped the Wii game up in fruit snack box so it would not look like the game. I gave him the DVD to open and he was thinking he was so smart saying snarky things like "oohhh I wonder what this is" wink wink, and "Maybe it's a movie". Oh man I was giggling so hard and really almost jumping on the couch I was so excited for the reveal. Once he finally got it open he was so surprised and I yelled out "haha fake out!" Oh man it was the best. I was laughing so hard and he was so surprised. It was really great!

We had a really great Christmas morning. It was fun and relaxing and everyone was super happy with what they got. I got Kefford an intake for his pickup truck and he spent the morning putting that in while I spent the morning baking bread with my new bread machine. We also got the Family game night for the Wii and the kids and i had fun playing with that while Kefford worked in the garage and while my new gadget baked us bread.