Christmas Day 2016

Slowly but surely chugging through the Christmas posts! This was a special Christmas as it was the first one in our new house! It was also especially enjoyable as it was the first Christmas in a long, long time that we had no plans or commitments. We could simply enjoy the day at home as a family without having to rush anywhere. I loved it!

I did as much shopping online as humanly possible this year, which was a large chunk of the presents. As per usual I waited until last minute to finish shopping and took a few days off of work before Christmas to finish up and it took pretty much an entire second day off to wrap everything! We like to separate items (clothes/books/etc) and wrap as much as possible to stretch things out in the morning and make Christmas present opening last longer :)

We've continued the tradition like last year in explaining to the kids that Santa only brings a few special items (which are wrapped in Santa paper) and the rest are from mommy and daddy. This sets the stage to introduce gratefulness and allows us to talk about how it is important to help other families that do not receive presents for Christmas. How can you provide motivation to help others if Santa gets everyone presents? Why would Santa get more presents for our kids than others? We want our kids to understand how lucky they are and to grow up with a desire to help others less fortunate.

Santa came!!!!!!

We got new stockings this year from personal creations. I love how everyone has a different character on their stocking. Joe and I are bears (black and polar), Deaner is a dog (appropriate), Emmy is a penguin and Nolan a snowman (they chose their own).

This gigantic fireplace is made for Christmas!

We left out Nolan's cookies we baked for Santa along with some carrots for the reindeer and milk in the Santa mug. Santa left behind crumbs and a note!

Kids were up bright and early as usual and were SO excited to see all the presents under the tree! 

Santa even left hats for the kids to wear when opening their presents!

Checking out the loot.

This girl definitely got it this year and loved opening presents. The only hard thing was that she wanted to play with each one after opening and not open more!

A cash register for Emmy (that both kids love!)

Emmy's current favorite book is Pout Pout Fish and for Christmas she got the hide and seek book with panels to open!

I love when they each have the "same" present to open at the same time.

New sippy cups! (I told you we wrapped everything!!!)

A fun cardboard playhouse for the basement that you can color on!

Nolan's #1 ask this year was the "Iron Man Robot" (aka Hulk smasher). Lucky boy got 2 different kinds!! He must have been a good boy this year.

One happy kid with BOTH of his Iron Man robots!

Emmy the Cashier

Hugs for Daddy (yes we all had matching PJs - even Deaner!! Thanks Mom!)

Is there anything better??

Still so many more presents to open, but this kid is content. It took the better part of the entire morning to get through opening everything! Present fatigue - we probably overdid it!

Emmy got a bike helmet! Can't wait to both to ride more this Spring. The Delaware Canal Towpath awaits!

Emmy showing off her Hello Kitty Purse with play jewelry inside.

This girl is too much!! 

Doc McStuffins kitty cat vet kit. Emmy still often sleeps with kitty cat as her stuffed animal of choice <3

Look at those matching Jammies! Lookin' good Dee Dee!

Let's not forget that all (adults included) jammies had the flap in the back!

A Christmas favorite! Skeleton slippers (Nolan had been begging for these since Halloween!)

How can a 4 year old be so excited about a shirt?? (see below)

....When it says "The Invincible Iron Man" in reflective letters ;)

Crazy hair, don't care, and still manning the cash register!

His first set of "non-duplo" Legos! Lego juniors (and of course... Iron man themed!) We can officially call this Christmas the year of the super heroes!

We have had this rocking horse from Ikea sitting in our basement (from our last house) for a long, long time (unassembled). It was the perfect year to put it together and give it to our little girl. She's the perfect size for it!

A fun tradition that Joe is bringing from his childhood is to have one last present "hidden" somewhere that is to be found after everything else has been opened. This year it was a sled (something we really needed!) that was hiding behind the couches in the playroom.

He can't wait to use his new sled (in his favorite color nonetheless!)

Still rocking (and rocking her hair!)

Time for a little indoor sledding!

Dean getting in on the photo op!

After breakfast (delicious pancakes made by Joe! It has been forever since I've had pancakes!) we moved to opening stockings! The big hit was the Iron man light up spin toy!

Emmy got a Minnie helicopter spin toy!

Dinosaur! And we finally got a clip in her hair...

He has transformed into Iron Man...

Dean got a Pepperoni Pizza Slice dog toy!!

His other #1 gift from Christmas - Spiderman PJs "with the net under the arms". He has been asking for this one constantly and ran all over the house as Spiderman the rest of Christmas!

Spiderman (with bat car that changes into an airplane) and Emmy sledding indoors. Looks like the product of a wonderful Christmas!

Until next year! 

It was a really magical year of Christmas! Emmy is still a bit young to understand, but loved following her big brother's lead and opening/playing with everything he did. Nolan was in heaven, and definitely mourned the loss of Christmas when it was all over. We have had a lot of talks on "if every day was Christmas, it wouldn't feel special", but he's still talking about next Christmas well into February. He's already started his list and I constantly remind him to not go about life wanting constantly and rather look at ways to give. He's getting it bit by bit and has helped clear out a good amount of "baby" toys and things we no longer need to give to kids who are less fortunate. We've talked about how happy this will make kids who don't have many toys, and he seems to be more willing to part with things, especially if it's spun that we're making room for future stuff.

We'll see what the next year brings. We may end up being roped into "Elf on the Shelf" because the elf has visited many of Nolan's friends and he's started asking why he doesn't come to our house. We'll see if the pressure is on next year - i've heard it can be a lot of work to maintain, especially if you want to be creative, but I could also see it being fun each morning to find the elf so we'll see!