Christmas Day

We had a very nice Christmas. We stayed home, and the family came to us. My sister had spent the night and was there Christmas morning, with my parents driving in a little later that morning. Garrett was very calm when he came to our room. I half expected him to wake us up at 5am, but he loves his sleep too much, I guess. We started rushing to get him downstairs, but he said he was fine resting a little in our bed. He's always liked taking his time waking up - he used to cry and shake his head if I came to get him out of his crib right after he woke up. We snapped him out of it, woke up my sister, grabbed Skittles, and headed down to see what treasures Santa had left.

The first thing they noticed was their new kitchen. Next, they saw the stuffed puppy dog for Scout and Whirly Pop popcorn maker for G from Santa. Then the wrapping paper started flying and stockings were shaken out. Garrett really got some great gifts this year, and he truly loved everything he got. We didn't go overboard with Scout, and I think she was happy with her gifts, as well. When my parents arrived, the mayhem continued, and at one point, I was frantically gathering up the wrapping paper just to give us room to walk. G's gifts definitely had a few themes of pirates, construction and Cars. Scout's was mostly Little People toys, Dora and puppies - her favorite probably being the newborn puppy from my sister that barks and wags its tail. She lovingly fed it a bottle throughout the day. It all sat out for a couple of days, and the kids had a ball.

We had a nice ham for dinner, which pleased Garrett to no end. He's really been into the Grinch book and movie lately. When he saw the ham sitting on the serving platter in the middle of the table, he screamed with delight, "The roast beast!" If you can't remember that far back into childhood and haven't rediscovered it with your own children, roast beast is what the Whos have for their Christmas dinner and what the Grinch carves in the end.

Then the "kids" sat around the tree for Christmas songs. My dad played the guitar, while Ryan played Garrett's new harmonica, that Santa left in his stocking (which he purchased at Cracker Barrel for a very reasonable price, if anyone's interested). We ended the day by letting Garrett pop some popcorn in his new pot. He was stoked to turn the crank. Finally, we all gathered in our bedroom to have "movie night" with G's new Veggie Tales movie "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything." (I was finding popcorn in my bed for the next few days.) It was a relaxing and fun-filled day!