Christmas Day

Twas the night before Christmas...

Santa stuffs their stockings and brings each of our children one gift in addition to a basket (or two!) of "family" gifts; things like books, movies, and board games...things we all use or do together as a family. The kids are always very excited to see what gift Santa chose for them and they LOVE looking through the family baskets.

 Then each child takes a turn passing out the gifts they chose for their siblings and for Todd and me.

 There are so many hugs!

 Then the rest of the gifts are passed out and the gifting frenzy begins! Nick asked everyone he knew for the new Skylander Spiro game. I think he was a bit excited ;) Truly I think if that was all he got, he would have been just as happy!

 When Megan saw Nick's excitement, she was not to be outdone so the next gift she opened..a fuzzy blanket...got this response...

That kid cracks me up! Actually, the more authentic excitement happened over this:

And it's still her favorite a week and a half later!

Number one on Brandon's list was a chemistry set. He actually got two!

 Lucky guy :)

Kristen's favorite was an Express gift card. She's had a great time this week shopping with all her various gift cards! Yay for after Christmas sales!

After the opening frenzy, the kids started busting their new things out of the packaging:

I had whipped up a breakfast casserole the night before so as soon as the kids were awake I headed downstairs before they were allowed, put the casserole in the oven, poured two mugs of steaming coffee, and grabbed my camera. The casserole was finished just about the time all the gifts were opened making our morning very relaxing and low-key....just the way I like it!