I Heard the Yells on Christmas Day!

December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas! The kidlets both awoke early Christmas Day, after a rough night of nightmares, drink requests and mystery cries*. We took the traditional picture on the stairs in their cute Christmas jammies. JB and I were so excited to see the kids' reactions to their presents - that's the most fun.
We were quite proud that several of the kids' gifts were acquired from treasure hunting at DI. Yaks got a tool bench and Boo got a kitchen set, both for less than $10. I'll let each child tell you in his/her own words about their favorite gift.


Boo: "Dees are my princess dollies! Day have pretty dresses. Day stand in a circle and visit. Day're getting ready to go to the dance. Ben!? You can't touch my princess dollies! NO! Dees are mine!"

Ahhhh, so glad we've instilled in her the spirit of Christmas!










Yaks: "Dree-oh! Dree-oh! I fix it! I fix it. Dood job! Tang-coo, mamas. Tang-coo, dadas!"


Oh, this boy is such a munchkin.





I think JB's favorite gift was a pair of photo cufflinks (a tradition each Christmas) with the kids' pictures inside. JB got me a gift card for a date night to Benihana's. I'm looking forward to that, as JB has never had that type of dining experience. It will be fun!


My brother and sister-in-law drew our names for our family gift exchange. They mailed us a darling church binder for each child with the gospel A-B-C's in it, a coloring book, notepad, colored pencils, board book and stickers. It obviously took much time and thought. It's the perfect gift to help with our Sunday troubles. Thanks, family!

We didn't have anywhere to go for the rest of the day, so we took advantage of the freshly-fallen snow and went sledding on a nearby hill. Boo went down on the sled all by herself! Yaks was done after his first run, when we got plowed by a tuber and Yaks got snow spray all over his face. Fortunately, there were some nice dogs who were also visiting the hill. They were fun to chase around."I went down all by my say-olf! Yay!"

Yaks is going to stick to dry ground.

I came down with a mild case of the Christmas blues later in the day. You know, missing that carefree feeling of Christmas day as a child, long-standing traditions, endless talking with my siblings, and relying on my own parents to be in charge? I felt so guilty feeling this way. I had a really fun day with my own family and love to be with them. We had planned to drive up to visit the day after Christmas, but canceled, due to a threatening snowstorm, which was a real disappointment. We did have a visit from Nana, Papa, Isaac and Abby, though, and got to show them our gifts and received many others from them, which was so nice.

Following naps for all, which helped a great deal, we enjoyed a little family Christmas dinner, ate treats, played for hours with "our toys", and watched a little movie all together on the couch before collapsing, exhausted into bed.



*Mystery cries: It is unknown which child has cried out. Checking each bedroom, each child appears to be sleeping soundly and peacefully. Once you are snuggled back into your own blankets and almost back to sleep, you are awakened again by the same mystery cry. This cycle is repeated at least three times.