I'm so glad we had snow for Christmas! It's so magical to look out the window in the evening and see the neighborhood reflecting light. It's so bright and cheery and encouraging. We were pounded with snow (but not as much as those south of us) and I shoveled twice on Christmas since the kids and I were expecting family to come over throughout the day.
On Christmas Eve the kids got to open a present once Kev was home from work. Aspen received a cute tin tea set from Jeshua's family, and she promptly set up a party for some of the dolls she was given long ago by me (old-school Kirsten! Anne of Green Gables!) and Sophia. It was so cute!
Linc was given a V-Tech sportsy center thing that lets him play basketball or soccer. For a while now, he would point at neighbors' houses and yell "BALL!" and I'd be confused because I almost never saw whatever ball he was talking about. Eventually I realized he was talking about basketball HOOPS. Many of the houses he can see from our living room windows have a hoop and he loves them. When he got that gift from my parents he was ecstatic. He loves the little basketball it came with, and he immediately figured out all the functions of the thing, and how to make it sing, count and cheer for him. Aspen likes it too, and it's nice they can pretend they're playing soccer together.
After the kids were in bed I cleaned up the living room and filled all the stockings. I'm so glad we get to host some of my family most years. It's so wonderful having Seth and Sophia come over and celebrate with us. And I love getting little things for my siblings' stocking (LIKE DOLLAR STORE SELFIE-STICKS!!).
Since Kev worked all day Christmas, we held off on opening the presents in the morning. It was so hard! Aspen was so patient though, and didn't really bother me about it; she just continually referenced that we were waiting for Dad and he would be home soon and then we'd open ALL THE PRESENTS. She kept her cool until we were nearly done with dinner and then she said, "I don't care about dessert so I'm not going to eat anymore I just want to finally open my presents!" Bless her little heart.
ANYWAY. Their stockings were more full than usual because Kev said it was fine if I gave the kids their movies and some of the smaller toys/art supplies I'd picked out for them. I needed them to have some new things to play with to help us get through the day!
It was helpful that I let them eat chocolate for first-breakfast. Linc was PSYCHED (as seen below hahahahaha!!).
And despite receiving at least a foot of snow overnight in their neighborhood, Sophia and Jose dug themselves out and came up to our house around 830 in the morning. The kids were able to open the presents from my sister and it was so fun to see them enjoying what she and Jose brought.
Aspen's still at the age at which she'll open something and yell, "Oh this is just what I always wanted!" even if she's never seen the thing before in her life. She did that with the cute glowing wand Sophia brought her. I love it! She is always so gracious at Christmas.
Linc loved the school bus Jeshua's family sent him, and we used it throughout the morning to crash into some of his other toys. He's into trains now, and Kev found a little Thomas engine stuck in the mud at work and he gave that to Linc (so awesome).
Later in the afternoon Uncle Seth came, which is very exciting because he also brings his dog, Sampson. Linc has learned to say both Uncle and Zshamzsham so that's adorable. Sam will actually play fetch with Linc, which is why he loves that dog so much. Maddie is old and grouchy and will fetch the ball only a couple of times before she's over it.
Uncle Seth also teaches Linc new ways to play with balls!
When Kev finally got home we had the chaos of presents! Aspen was so excited about the Pony-making play-doh set. I managed to capture the look on her face when she read the box and realized what it meant.
One of the last couple of presents she opened were the two Equestria dolls she asked for. The happiness on her face is priceless! Now she has all those dolls and I never have to shop for them ever again.
My parents also sent Linc this bouncy donkey and he totally FREAKED OUT as we opened it. I don't know if he knew what it was, but I think he saw the kids on the box riding it and he was gunning for a turn. I was going to get the bike pump for it but Linc was like, NOW!! so Seth just blew it up manually. And then Seth rode it down the hall so the rest of the night Linc yelled, "DONKEY! UNCLE! DONKEY! UNCLE!" He wouldn't go to bed until Seth rode the donkey one last time into Linc's room. And then he laid it down and they covered it with a blanket so Linc would give it a rest. I about died.
Seth gave Aspen her first Lego set and it's a cops and robbers scene. She pulled it out first-thing this morning and built the bad guy hideout almost entirely by herself. She really loves to engineer things. Her Grandpa Taylor gave her a fort building kid and Kev put together the rocket shape before he left for work. Then Aspen proceeded to draw and cut out space shapes (rockets, planets, aliens etc) for me to tape onto her ceiling so she can pretend to fly past them.
We also got to make ponies together while Sophia kept Linc from screaming at me and climbing on the table with us. I bought this play-doh set for her birthday this summer but decided she was getting too many things already so saved it for now. I love doing that so much that maybe I actually purposely forgot to give Linc the toy vacuum I bought him this year for Christmas and it's okay to give it to him for his birthday...
It was a great Christmas and I'm so glad the kids had so much fun. Today Sophia and Jose have the kids at a children's museum so I can enjoy the best gift of all- a chance to relax after a hectic couple of days. But really, I've already gotten some work done for
OSSS, done some laundry and sorted through photos from the week. I suppose doing all that without Linc screaming at me to pick him up is sort of like relaxing :).
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
You can also find me on:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for stopping by!