We started the day out with Christmas-shaped pancakes. The kids thought these were fun =)
Christmas Eve day also started out with one thing that seems to be a tradition (or maybe a curse?) that we cannot seem to break! We can't seem to have a Christmas without sickness. The night before Christmas Eve Emmit slept terrible and was coughing a lot, so that morning I took him into the Dr. Of course he had an ear infection and croup =P Antibiotics and an oral steriod, and we were on our way back home.
We had gotten a little dusting of snow the night before too, so we had to play outside. We did a little shoveling in the morning, and I pulled the kids around the yard in the sled in the afternoon. We barely had enough snow to really call this 'playing in the snow', but we made due =)
That afternoon we also made a gingerbread house. So I will admit, I did not even read the instructions and just starting frosting and putting stuff together. Whoops...one hour of dry time between base and roof, 2 hours of dry time between roof and other decorating...nahh...we just improvised with toothpicks =) Next year when I think this sounds like a good idea, I think I may just defer to a bowl of frosting and some sugar candy for the kids to play with because that was all they really cared about. Our gingerbread house was far from picture-perfect, but it was sure finger-licking good!
We didn't make any fancy meals or anything as we had a great meal the night before, and were getting ready to head out of town for a few days. Christmas Eve day ended up being leftover day which was just as good. We also tracked Santa on his trek around the world, and Santa sent the kids some special videos which Ellie thought was REALLY cool. He asked Ellie to be nice to her brother and Emmit to be nice to his sister in the coming year, so hopefully Santa's word has some traction ;)
With Emmit's steroid earlier in the day, he was wired and did not nap, so by 5:30 he was crashing. We did what we could to keep him up, but it was not even 7:00 and he was down for the night. We watched the Ice Age Christmas movie which was really cute, and then Ellie and Daddy made some cookies to leave for Santa. Ellie took this very seriously and also suggested leaving chocolate milk for Santa too.
Our cookies and milk all ready for Santa.
Santa excitement prolonged bedtime for Ellie a bit, but by 9:30 she was sleeping and waiting for Santa to come. After the kids were in bed, Colin and I had a drink and just watched some TV...perfect end to a fun day.
Christmas morning the kids were up promptly at 6:00. Our typical morning now is Emmit getting up and yelling for someone to come get him. Lately he's just been getting out of bed on his own. Either way, he's not quiet. I did get up right away to get him, but there was no keeping Ellie sleeping this morning. She popped right out of bed, and the first words out of her mouth were "Did Santa come?!" So we went to see!
The kids were super excited for their gifts from Santa and also very thankful which I loved. Each of their gifts had a little something to make it special for Ellie or Emmit. Ellie was very cute; she was just so excited saying she loved her gifts from Santa. I was almost crying listening to her. I honestly wasn't sure if she was going to want more than she got. She was so content and so thankful though =) Watching them open their gifts was a lot of fun. Ellie was very fast to open hers while Emmit took longer. He eventually got some 'help' from his sister to finish up.
Tearing into their first gifts!
Ellie got a couple Barbies which she likes playing with a lot.
Emmit with his new crocs (and jammies and coloring book)...it was a Cars Christmas for Emmit. Ellie got some Scooby Doo crocs too; perfect for her Scooby Doo obsession right now!
A new Cars plate for Emmit
Santa also ate ALL the cookies and drank ALL the milk. Ellie was just fascinated with this. She told everyone she saw on Christmas Day that Santa ate ALL her cookies! =)
After we were done opening gifts by the tree, the kids played for a few minutes. Ellie then realized that we forgot to check our stockings! She was suddenly so excited again. Of course Santa had left a few more little things in their stockings.
Most exciting to Emmit, M&Ms. All he wanted to do was eat these, forget the toys!
Emmit did get his own 'laptop' too so that he doesn't have to play with Ellie's princess one anymore =)
After opening gifts, we had a little breakfast and then packed up to head to Grandma and Grandpa's, which the kids were very excited about. It was a perfect first Christmas at home =)
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