Christmas morning as a family of four

What a special year this Christmas was celebrating with our baby girl for the first time and watching the excitement in our two-year-old's face. Hadley was a little clueless about what all the hype was about but enjoyed it nonetheless. Caleb, on the other hand, had been excited about the stockings, presents, Christmas tree, decorations, etc. all month and was overwhelmed with joy that it was finally Christmas day! Not remembering much from his previous Christmases, it was like this year was a first for him too. The two grown-ups in the house were extra cheery that morning too, smiling as we watched our babies enthusiasm.

 

Hadley started her morning playing with the Nativity set Grandma 

and Grandpa gave us last year. We failed to read the Christmas story 

to the kids Christmas morning like we've done the past few years and 

I felt terrible about it. This picture cheered me up a little to know that 

Hadley started out her morning the right way.

I found some cute stockings this year at Pottery Barn Kids that I liked, so when my mom got a $25 off coupon we ordered them and had the kids' names embroidered across the top. She gave them to us early so we could have them displayed by the fireplace leading up to Christmas. For weeks, Caleb has been pulling them from the mantel and peeking into the stockings, looking at a few pieces of candy or other things I put in them early. While I saved most of the stocking stuffers back, I'm glad a put a few things in because he kept asking Dave and I to take the stockings down so he could check them out. It provided a lot of entertainment leading up to the big day. Finally, on Christmas morning, there were four full stockings to explore. Toys, battery powered toothbrushes, and snacks made them bulge, beckoning for little hands to empty them.

 

 

 

While he loved the toys, he thought it was especially funny that he had an orange in the bottom - a tradition that my mom started with our stockings when I was growing up. Dave thought it was a little silly and questioned why I put oranges in the stockings. I answered him that part of it is the sentimentality, but the other part is that I remember my grandparents talking about getting oranges in their stockings as kids and it helps me keep the perspective of being grateful for all that we have now. Even Hadley, who only had one tooth at the time, got an orange in the bottom of her pretty stocking.

 

   

Next, we went to look under the tree. I tried hard to make sure everything was divided evenly and that they both got the same number of presents to open. In the end it didn't really matter though, Caleb blew through the gifts one after the other, often more excited about tearing into the paper than the fact that he was getting new toys. Poor Hadley got left in the dust. She too was excited about the wrapping paper, but it had the opposite effect on her. Instead of wanting to open more, she just wanted to crinkle the small pieces she had in her hands already.

 

 I love these matching elf pjs my mom found!

 The tortoise and the hare

 Crinkle, crinkle, crinkle

Yay! The complete Little House on the Prairie book set. 

(Did I mention I had a hard time trying to find good ideas for Hadley for 

Christmas since her brother already had a lot of the traditional baby 

toys that she can play with? I figure she can grow into this one!)

The most special gift Hadley received this Christmas though came from her brother - his woo-woos. After wrapping up his pacifiers two and a half weeks prior, Caleb only asked for them a few times and was quickly settled when reminded that he'd wrapped them up for her because he was a big boy. While I'd been worried about how he'd respond when they were out of the box again, I ended up deciding not to hide the present he'd wrapped for her. First off, I figured he'd remember anyway. Plus, I thought his excitement and the gesture was too sweet not to let him follow through. (See this post for the full background story about this gift.)

His focus turned from opening his own presents as he stopped to focus on her opening his gift. After helping her get it open, he took out one of the woo-woos and popped in her mouth. My heart was overflowing! She was mesmerized by having a whole box of pacifiers to herself. She sat there for the longest time just trying out one after the other.

 

 

 

 

Just to make sure Caleb didn't decide he wanted those treasured woo-woos back later, I made sure Hadley gave him a really good gift - the battery powered James that he's been wanting since this past summer. I figured if there was any talk wanting his gift back from her, it would be short lived when he found out that he'd have to trade the James train. It never was a problem though. His mama needs to give him a little more credit. After all, he is a big boy!

Our Thomas lover was easy to shop for! I found myself really having to put a limit on what we chose. There were so many things I knew he'd love. We gave several ideas to family members who wanted them and then picked a few items from us. He was thrilled with our choices.

 

Hadley, who was still enjoying her new pacifiers, got to dig into age appropriate toys too finally. She got a Little People's Noah's ark set and a stroller to help her learn to walk as she pushes her dolls. Daddy also found her some fun blocks with a variety of small features to busy those adorable hands.

I also bought the kids these 31 Utility Totes this summer when there was a sale to use for visiting grandparents. They worked well for Christmas because rather than wrapping all the small toys, books, clothes, etc. I just loaded up the totes and wrapped it all as one big gift. A definite time saver!

 

What's in Hadley's bag?

 Hadley was still focused on the woo-woos even 

after all the presents were open.

 Some Little House on the Prairie DVDs for me!

We bought Dave the Planet Earth DVD set. Caleb, who saw 

me wrap it, told him one day that we bought him an animal book.

Dave decided at that point not to let Caleb see what he'd bought for me. :)

The presents were nice but the time together, watching the kids enjoy themselves made my Christmas. I thought Christmases were fun as a child but there's nothing quite like seeing my own babies' excitement.