The Second Day of Christmas Break

Christmas Day in our home.  Ahhh, the loveliness of five cherubs contemplating the meaning of Christmas, enjoying spending time together, and just glowing in thankful thoughts about Christ's birth. 

Well, that's not exactly how it works... 

We have tried over the years to get the kids to slow down and open presents one at a time, thanking whomever gave the gift.  We have tried to slow down the whole pace of the day, in fact.  But it just seems to get crazier and crazier as the years go by.

We live in a small townhome.  It wasn't too small when we bought it in 2003.  Even then, though, it was a bit of a squeeze for our family of 5.  The townhome started out with three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms.  A "half bath" for those who don't know is one which doesn't have a shower or a bathtub.  These are also called "powder rooms".  Over the years, we added a new full bathroom and a full room to our basement.  We also added two more kids:  Luke (born during the end of the first year of medical school) and Josie (born during the start of the second year of residency.)  Five kids, two parents, four bedrooms...  It's crowded.

Prepare to be underwhelmed by the size of our tree:

We know that our tree is small and pathetic looking.  This year we set it up next to an indoor plant to sort of make it look bigger, but the effect just makes it look sillier!  No worries, though.  The kids only seem to care about the presents...

When we first moved in, we were planning to get a regular sized pre-lit tree from Costco.  We waited too long though, and they were all sold out when we got around to it.  The other trees left in other stores were too expensive, so we just settled on a small tree "for that year only".  Since I was pregnant and not feeling great, and the twins were into everything, we were happy with our little tree.  As the years have gone by, we've spent most Christmases in Yakima with family.  We didn't really need to have a Big Tree!  We could just bask in the splendor of Mom's Big Tree!  The years where we have been stuck here in Maryland, we've just stuck with our little tree.  Honestly we don't have space for a big tree in our little house.  But as soon as we move to something more spacious, that will all change!  I'm sure our little tree will always have a special place in our hearts...

On Christmas Day, the kids start off by opening their presents from Santa.  He always leaves one for each kid, even Kate who doesn't even send a letter anymore.  It's nice of Santa to remember her, really...  She shouldn't be surprised if he forgets her one of these years though!  Here is a picture of Josie opening her Santa present.   

After Santa presents, we have a Big Breakfast.  Mac likes to make breakfast- pancakes, eggs, bacon...  After breakfast, the Big Wait for the rest of the presents. 

This year, the kids had to wait downstairs in the basement while Mac and I arranged the presents under the tree.  Well, the presents weren't exactly under the tree.  More like covering most of the floor in the living room area near the tree... 

After the space looked sufficiently ridiculous, we called the kids upstairs.  This is the fun part.  They sprint up with all the anticipation in the world, and then they all just dive in.  We have tried to institute order into this process, but really, it's pointless.  Too many kids with too much excitement.  We just try to make sure that Josie opens Josie's presents instead of everyone else's! 

Here are pictures of the kids opening presents:

Kate was happy with her ridiculous ipod...

Josie wants to have Christmas everyday!

Steven is really into the Warriors series.  These are books about tribes of cats which fight epic battles of good vs evil.  He loves them! It's GREAT to find books that he enjoys that don't feature cartoons.

Luke was Really Excited about everything this year.  It was hard to catch him in a picture at all!  This was his "chocolate Santa" year.  A "chocolate Santa" year, for those who don't know, refers back to the home video of our family Christmas years ago, when my little brother Nate was about 7 years old or so.  Nate received some chocolate Santas in his stocking, for which he squeaked in the most excited voice ever, "Oh boy ANOTHER Chocolate Santa!!"  He was so cute.  Nate hates that video, as I'm sure Luke will someday hate the video of his reaction to every gift this year!

We recorded the mayhem for posterity.  It took less than 9 minutes to undo all that wrapping!  Amazing.  The kids can work really fast when they want to.  It usually takes Luke over 20 minutes to set the table! 

Everyone was happy with their gifts.  We do Secret Santa gifts so that the siblings only have to buy one present, so I've made a note of what the Secret Santa gifts were too.  Here is a rundown of what everyone got:

Josie:  Baby Doll stuff, and an adorable princess dress from Kate (Josie's Secret Santa) that makes Josie feel the need to twirl and dance.  She also got some Little People toys, some books, and various other toys.

Luke:  Star Wars Galactic Hero At-At walker toy was the big hit.  He also got Pokemon cards, and Pokemon toys, and some video games.  Steven was Luke's Secret Santa and he got him a nice Pokemon card assortment featuring Pikachu cards from around the world.  Yes, there are different versions of Pikachu...

Steven:  Kung Zhu pets stuff, Pokemon stuff, video games, and the Warriors books were the big highlights.  Isabel was Steven's Secret Santa and she got him some Kung Zhu stuff. 

Isabel:  Lots of fun journals, dumb diary books, some Zhu Zhu stuff, a Pillow Pet (that was the Big Deal this year), and a cool reindeer webkinz stuffed animal from her Secret Santa, Luke.

Kate:  The main present:  a 64 GB ipod touch.  That might hold all her music...  She also got some books and some small stuff.  She got some Bath and Body Works Sweet Pea scented stuff from her Secret Santa, Josie.

Santa gave Steven, Isabel and Luke each a Webkinz, and they spent some time playing Webkinz on the computer.  They seem to enjoy that...  Santa gave Josie a baby doll that works as a motion detector too.  You walk by this doll and it giggles and moves.  The doll sounds like it's in distress, though.  It's probably as effective as a guard dog to deterring would-be intruders.  Santa gave Kate some sweater-style boot slippers.  She's worn them out almost completely.  I don't think they were intended to be worn outside, but oh well. 

I gave Mac some workout clothes and a weight belt.  I braved Walmart to buy him the specific belt he wanted.  THAT'S true love.  Mac gave me a nice little point and shoot camera that I can carry with me in my purse.  I have yet to try it out!  I'm sure I will, though! 

While the kids played with their toys, I made a Thanksgiving dinner.  We didn't have Thanksgiving at home this year, and Mac ended up eating Cup of Noodles or something like that.  The kids and I were out in Washington state.  We had a Thanksgiving dinner, but Mac missed out, so we redid it all:  turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, green beans...  We even had a pecan pie. 

Christmas was a chaotic day, but it was fun.  We did miss seeing the greater family, but perhaps another year!