Christmas Morning

We figured that this might be the last year we had a chance to be showered and dressed before the Christmas morning festivities began, so Brent and I got up at 6am and got ourselves ready for the day. Jonathan ate and went back to sleep. We perched ourselves on the stairs closest to the boys' room so we could catch them before they wandered into the living room. We didn't figure they would remember on waking up that it was Christmas and Santa had come. We were right.

We started hearing Coleman around 7 talking quietly. He knows he's supposed to stay in his bed, and we could hear him saying, "Andrew? Are you 'wake?" Then we heard him moving around in the room and saw this.


We kept getting our cameras ready for that first picture, and they kept beeping and whirring. Coleman could hear the noises, but had no idea what it was. He was saying, "What's that? It's a bear!" Very hard to keep from busting out laughing.

A few minutes later, Andrew got out of bed and appeared at the door. Pretty apparant he's forgotten it's Christmas. We videotaped all of this and I'll post it another day.


Stopping for a picture on the steps before heading to the living room. We've told them by this point that Santa came and it's Christmas, but I still think they were a little groggy.



A first look at the living room


Andrew's pile


Coleman's pile

Jonathan's pile

Andrew was very surprised by his bicycle. He hadn't really been asking for one, but jumped right on when he realized it was his.

They were both excited about Coleman's new fire truck!

This was a great year to have no dining room furniture. They rode around all morning.

Trying out his new armor

Opening a new fireman's jacket

one of Jonathan's gifts

In the past, my gifts for Brent have been hit and miss. He's been very difficult to buy for the last few years, since he was pretty much an indentured servant with no free time or hobbies. However, he was very surprised and excited when he opened his Wii. Hooray! He also got a collage frame of the boys' pictures for his office, and a new clock/weather station.

I got a new coat, three little boy Willow Tree figures, and Charleston Receipts. It's the oldest continually published cookbook there is. I mentioned it when we went to Charleston, and he remembered and got it for me. How sweet!

the first of many brotherly swordfights

opening stockings

Good grief. It is very consoling to know that everyone else with Santa aged kids had a similar looking living room floor that morning.

Right about now, Gigi and Papack, Aunt MerMer and Uncle Roger and Major are walking up to the door. We'll see what happened next tomorrow.