We had the best morning together. After rushing out to see what Santa had brought, we opened a few other presents before having a delicious breakfast of overnight baked French toast, sausage patties, fresh berries, and orange juice. We loved it so much that we decided to make it a Christmas tradition. Afterwards, we finished opening our mound of presents.
Jamie had specifically asked Santa for play-doh, a little bag of chocolates, and a bell from his sleigh (à la The Polar Express). He got all of those plus a few more things: No Stress Chess, Old Maid, a pencil sharpener, chapstick, a little sticker booklet, and two rolls of masking tape. Out of all of them his favorite was. . . the tape. He has been obsessed with tape for a few months, which is why it was in there in the first place. My favorite quote of the morning: "Santa is the BEST! Look, Mommy, he brought me tape!" And he kept talking about it: "The tape is my favorite! And the candy." "I'm so happy that I got 2 tapes! Now I can use tape whenever I want!" (The tape was all used up by the following afternoon.) Jamie's other presents included lots of new books (he was most excited about his new Star Wars book, Weasels, How to Train a Train and Chickens to the Rescue), more play-doh, art supplies a-plenty, new pjs, dinosaur cookie cutters, some little cars, a T-Rex hand puppet that he named Calvinall and which has become a hilarious fixture of playtime, and his big presents, tickets to see Annie with me at the Tennessee Theatre (the touring Broadway production, not the movie that just came out) and theatre classes at the Knoxville Children's Theatre from Grammy and Papy. It was so gratifying to watch Jamie open his presents. He was SO excited about every single thing, and he kept exclaiming, "This is WONDERFUL!" or "This is PERFECT!" with each one.
Jacob was somewhat less ecstatic about his gifts. He did help unwrap a few things but got bored quickly and just crawled around playing with boxes, trying to eat wrapping paper, and pulling movies off the shelf. His main gift was a pair of Robeez shoes, and he also got several bibs, pacis, snack grabbers, a reindeer sippy cup, a couple lift-the-flap books, a couple little toys, a cute outfit with a raccoon on it, a really nice sleep sack, and a pirate bath toy set from Jamie.
Thomas and I mainly got money, which was okay by us! Additionally, we each got books, treats, and some fun stocking stuffers. After joking about it a lot at Thanksgiving, Thomas also got me a "Team Finnick" t-shirt. The best gifts were the ones Jamie gave us because he was so excited about them and had also actually started being thoughtful about gifts this year. He gave me a book about oceans, which is totally random, but according to Thomas, he had been planning on it for months because my favorite color is blue and oceans are blue. He also made me (with Thomas's help) some coupons promising to play quietly on his own during Jacob's naps so I can read or get things done. Jamie drew Thomas a picture of a castle and got him some packages of gum because he knows Daddy loves gum. He also really wanted to get Daddy a manuscript. At first I tried to explain we couldn't get one, but then I had the idea for us to make one together. I'll have to do a separate post all about it, but it turned out to be a really fun project, and Thomas just LOVED it.
The afternoon was spent enjoying our gifts. Jamie spent time painting, playing with play-doh, playing chess with Daddy, and having new stories.
For dinner we had homemade pizza (a tradition from my family). Jamie loved helping make it and of course eating it. After that, it was one last Christmas cookie and off to bed for the littles. It was a magical day.
And now for lots of pictures!
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| Jamie's Santa gifts |
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| Jacob's Santa gifts |
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| Jamie was THRILLED to see that Santa and the reindeer had eaten the treats he left for them. |
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| cute Christmas boys! Jacob had a diaper blowout that morning, so he got changed into his Christmas onesie right away. It inadvertently matched Jamie's pjs. :) |
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| Calvinall attacking Jacob, which Jacob actually LOVES. |
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| boys reading books :) |
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| after opening the manuscript |
Looks like fun and yummy pizza! I'm glad you're carrying on the traditions.
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