Christmas Day Wrap-Up

I still have some pre-Christmas pictures (and video!) to share with you all, but the video isn’t ready yet, so instead we’ll start with Christmas day and work backwards.

Christmas day started here before the sun came up, but that came as no great surprise to us. Lily thought it was pretty awesome to have a stocking with treats inside, and the boys were thrilled to see Santa had come! Then, in an attempt to hold the kids off on gifts until Aunt Laura and Uncle Mason could make their way over here, we had some breakfast and read the Christmas story (on the iPad, cause we’re a techie family). That bought us all of an hour. Ha!

Probably my very favorite part of this Christmas happened next. We finally relented and told the boys we could open gifts, so kid of the day (Jackson) picked out a gift for someone to open. Over the next 10 minutes, almost all of the gifts the boys had bought for each other had been opened. (Like last year, each boy got to go shopping for their siblings. They got $20 to spend total on all siblings and a parent, if they had enough leftover.) Yep, watching their siblings open the gifts they had carefully picked out was first on their gift opening priority list!

Watching the genuine joy and excitement as each boy opened a gift, squealed “it’s just what I wanted!” and gave the gifter a huge hug was just amazing. Moments like these make me really love being a parent! Then they got to work tearing into the other gifts under the tree. We had just finished up when Aunt Laura and Uncle Mason showed up, with more gifts!

We gave Laura and Mason a funny gift this year, and I was ready with the camera when Mason opened it! Nothing says “classy” like a deer, wearing an orange vest, laying on it’s back and looking like it’s drinking from the bottle of wine it’s holding. Ha!

The favorite gifts? This keyboard from my parents and the microphone and speaker stand from Nick’s parents. It has been VERY noisy in this house since Christmas day! The boys (and Lily!) have a blast with it though. Just check out this Christmas day jam session video!

 That’s Chase on keyboard, Ty dancing, Jackson is fiddling with the mic, and Laura is the cheering section.

Lily received a stroller and a few dolls, which she has been loving! It’s awfully fun to watch her push her babies around the house, give them a bottle, or cover them up with blankets. Such a little nurturer!

And Lily finally got a turn on the keyboard later that night! I sense a musical family in the making!

Quite possibly the best gift came from my husband though. We haven’t exchanged gifts since the boys were born, so it was quite the surprise to find this in my stocking on Christmas day!