Thursday, January 30, 2014

Christmas 2013: Part 1

Since getting married we have switched holidays from year to year.  One year we spend Thanksgiving here and Christmas in Nashville.  The next year vice versa.  This year was our turn to spend Christmas in Florida at home and with my in-laws.

Now that we have children it is definitely nice waking up in your own home on Christmas morning, or in our case Christmas Eve morning.  Since we had plans to go to my in-laws around noon on Christmas day we decided to have "our" Christmas on Christmas Eve morning.  

The kids were up bright and early!!  Like 5:30 a.m.  We have a tradition of wrapping a book for them to open and placing it outside their door.  Zoe has no clue, of course, but Bennett got up so early he walked right over his :)


We gave Bennett two of his favorites books we read when we are in Nashville at my sister's.  He has enjoyed each of these titles the last three times we have visited them.  Zoe received Sandra Boyton's Snuggle Puppy.


I did not not take much time to take photos, because 1.) where we open presents is kind of cramped 2.) I enjoy watching and helping them open the gifts.  Unfortunately, that means I got zero photos of the two kids together, zero photos of me, and zero photos of our whole family.  It was worth it!!


Bennett asked for 2 toys (although he said he wanted numerous toys throughout the month) over and over again.  1.) A book like Koo Koo and Dadder have (hard cover book that also has a small projector you use in the dark to project images from the book) 2.) I-Dragon.  We were able to find each of the toys he requested, but as usual those have not been his favorites.  He has most enjoyed the Gooey Louie game.



I had no intention of buying the kids a kitchen, but we scored this one for free at a church swap shop.  It has been a favorite of Zoe's.



Zoe spent most the morning playing with the coins from the cash register.  Eventually, she opened her Mrs. Potato Head, but B was the one who played with it.  



Bennett also got a box of Letter Construction Fun which came highly recommended.  I thought he would love them, but he has barely played with them.  His fascination with letters has almost come to an end.  It kind of makes me sad, because he enjoyed them for so long.



Here is a picture of tired daddy!!  You can only imagine how awake I looked :)


Then, we moved on to stockings which were always one of my favorites things to open on Christmas morning.   This year's stockings were filled with Little Mermaid characters, Dora characters, Turbo shampoo, bubble bath, jelly bellies, candy necklace/bracelet, and twistable crayons.  


The candy was a hit, of course, but Bennett has used his twistable crayons a lot and LOVES having Turbo (his favorite movie) shampoo.  Zoe is fascinated with bath bubbles, so it was fitting to give her some for Christmas.  Both kids enjoy Dora and I got the characters for free at the swap shop, so the stockings were definitely a hit.



I had a bed tent when I was a young girl and loved it.  I would decorate the inside, play house, etc.  Bennett enjoyed having it on his bed, but it was too hot, so we have taken it off for now.  


We had a relaxing day.  We just hung out most of the day playing outside and inside with their new toys.  



We ended the day with our last day of advent devotional.  I wish I would have taken a photo of the tree in Bennett's room.  It was decorated with the advent ornaments he made last year and the ones we used this year (given to us by our friends the Boney's).  Bennett asked to read our advent devotional every night.  We also sang a Christmas carol each night which he enjoyed and eventually began to sing along.  


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