Christmas 2008
The kids woke up at their normal school day time (around 6:30am). It was still dark outside. We hang our stockings downstairs in our living room over the fireplace. The kids are accustomed to opening stockings before breakfast, so they had already congregated in the living room by the time Kristy and I rolled out of bed. We let our kids open stockings before breakfast, but everything else must wait until the kids have made their beds, got themselves dressed, and eaten breakfast. My kids think we are mean for doing this.

After the kids are clothed and have their beds made, we take some time to read the first Christmas Story from out of book. I'm not sure where Olivia was when I snapped this:

We put our family gifts and the gifts to the kids from Santa upstairs in the attic next to the fake Christmas tree we bought this year. In fact, this is the first Christmas that the attic has been done so we are setting a new precedent here. It worked out very nice... there was plenty of room for unwrapping and lots of space for the kids to play with the toys afterward. Maybe the attic was worth all the trouble and expense after all? Heh.

Some notes about the "unwrapping" pictures below. First things first... my wife is very lovely as you can tell from several of the pictures. I've heard some describe her as "smoking hot" and I can't say I disagree. *ahem* So with that said... the rest of the pictures are just of the kids opening this present or that.

Per our tradition, Santa got the kids just one gift... which (we hope) were their very greatest desires (within reason of course). Olivia really wanted some "shopping toys" so she received a toy cash register and a toy shopping cart. Eliana asked Santa for a digital camera. And Berkeley asked Santa for a, uh, skateboard. I reluctantly assented to this after some strong reservations. In fact, I'm still not sure about it. Not because of safety concerns mind you, but because skateboarders are losers (no offense Uncle Scott).

One highlight of the morning was Olivia opening up her gift from Berkeley and Eliana; which was a tutu they made from tulle netting, ribbons, and small bells. She loved it and give both Berkeley and Eliana big "thank you" hugs. In fact, my kids were surprisingly gracious after opening each gift and give "thank you" hugs and kisses freely. I was very pleased about that.

In the afternoon, I snapped this picture of the state of the attic after the Christmas morning whirlwind. There is some cleaning up to do. *sigh*

Christmas Morning
Here are the pictures... in the order that they were taken. The order of events (generally speaking) on Christmas morning is: open stockings, then get dressed and eat breakfast, open Santa gifts, and finally open the family gifts.

Eliana's favorite gift was the mailbox and home-made packages, parcels, and letters that we made for her. Berkeley loved his legos (we spent the afternoon building the house pictured on the box). Olivia liked the candy in her stocking the best.

Christmas Vacation: Day 5 - Christmas Day
Well, Christmas Day... it has now come... and gone. The kids have been actively anticipating today for at least a couple of weeks; perhaps a little bit longer. We woke up today and had some pancakes, and then let the kids open their stocking presents. We then bathed the kids and got them dressed and lined them up in front of their "Santa bags". It sounds like we did a lot before the kids could get their first crack at opening presents, but we started opening gifts at a respectable hour... at around 9am.

We didn't get the kids too many toys... they mainly received clothes and little dollar-store trinkets. They did each get one "big" gift. Berkeley got a race track; Eliana got a doll house; and Olivia got, well, she got only small items (she's still little!).

Here are a few pictures we took while the kids opened their presents:

There are many more pictures here.

After we were done opening all of the loot, we packed up the kids and motored over to Bryan/Jess's house to hang out for an hour or so. Then we drove down to Brent/Shantell's for lunch and stopped by Mark/Jen's house for dinner. The kids had a great time playing with everyone else's new toys. When we finally made our way back to Mom/Dad's house, the kids got their first chance to play with their own new stuff. It was a long fun-filled day.

Christmas Day
We had an ok Christmas. I have spent most of the day curled up in a ball in bed. I felt good in the morning, but whatever flu bug Kristy has had for the past week hit me hard today. I feel terrible.

Here is a quick run-down on the gifts... Eliana's big Santa gift was a new pink stove from Pottery Barn Kids. It is a popular item and we were on a waiting list to get it, but fortunately PBK called us up a couple of days ago and offered us the floor model at a nice 30% discount - we jumped at the chance. I'm glad we did because Eliana loves her new stove. She also got an small toy umbrella from Santa, which is her favorite gift - by far. We gave her a bunch of boring stuff... new clothes.

Berkeley got a bicycle and bicycle helmet from Santa. He wanted a dog, but he got a bike. Sorry Berkeley. Berkeley also got a bunch of clothes from Mom and Dad. His favorite gift is a set of board games that Ebey gave him at the Christmas Eve Party last night... Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, and a couple of others. He doesn't seem to tire of playing Candy Land. Berkeley's second favorite toy (a very close second) is Eliana's umbrella... buying that umbrella was the best $5 gift I've ever purchased.

Kristy got me a bunch of new dress clothes. My very best suit (a black Armani) was located in the luggage that Delta lost. She got me really nice stuff, top quality... but I'm still going to miss my Armani. I loved that suit.

I got Kristy a day at the spa on MLK day (full body massage, facial, catered lunch, manicure, pedicure, etc). I also signed us up for eight weeks of ballroom dance lessons that start in the last part of January. Those two gifts were big hits. I also got her some new winter workout clothes to replace some old stuff she's had since forever. She scored.

Christmas Morning 2005 Photos

The full gallery can be accessed here:

Christmas Morning 2005 Photo Gallery