one of the best christmases ever

Hurray! Christmas is here!

We spent Christmas Eve at the Yancey's. Nearly the whole family was in attendance (minus 2 of Don's boys). The cousins played outside to their hearts content until it was time for dinner. Each year Debbie labors over home-made tamales and we feast on Mexican food. As usual it was delicious. This year I was quite sick (I can't ignore it anymore), so I didn't have the regret of over indulging on it all. Then we gathered around together and opened presents. Each year we have one family we're responsible for buying gifts for and we open them while we're all together. The gifts both given and recieved seemed to be a big hit.

Afterwards we came home and hurriedly bathed so the kids could have the traditional opening of the pj's on Christmas Eve. This is a tradition that has carried over from when I was little, and I believe my mother did as a child as well. I love to see them all in their new comfy jammies in the morning. It was Taylor's request this year to get jammies that weren't so 'juvenille'. He says that these qualify. Then Paige fell asleep as Todd read the Christmas story from the bible.

Todd and I helped Santa put the finishing touches on gifts and went right to bed.

Christmas morning Paige and Taylor were in our room at precisely 6:30 - the pre-determined time that mommy and daddy would oblige their request to get started. We let them open gifts one at a time so we could enjoy one anothers excitement and to keep it from being a big blur. This is the first year that Gabriel recognized Santa and enjoyed opening gifts, and it was a treat to watch his excitement. When they were asked how their morning had been Taylor uncharactaristically exclaimed, "This is one of the best Christmases ever!" Paige reports that she is happy with all that she got, but didn't get the electric moped she'd asked Santa for.

Paige was also concerned with whether or not Santa was left the cookies she made the day before since she fell asleep before she could put them out herself. We assured her we did and showed her the plate where one half eaten cookie and a whole cookie remained along with an empty glass of milk. After a few minutes had lapsed, Paige looked again at the plate and exclaimed that the half eaten cookie was now gone. Who ate it? Daddy's guilty expression gave it away immediately. I was puzzled as to her concern for a half-eaten cookie until she said "Daddy, that's gross that you would eat Santa's leftover cookie!"

We didn't have our annual pancake breakfast since Dad went and left the country for a vacation, but we made our own fabulous waffle & strawberries breakfast with homemade buttermilk syrup and cinnamon rolls. It's enough to rot a few teeth. Sommer & Steve and their family and Mara and her family live nearby so they joined us and the kids had a chance to excitedly talk about their new presents. We all enjoyed a relaxed breakfast next to our roaring fire courtesy of channel 9.

We planned to go hiking, but much to Todd's relief, I still wasn't up for it. So, the kids played outside, giving their new toys a ride. Paige is still trying to adapt to Heely's and a scooter and Taylor, being an old pro, is giving her lessons. Gabriel is anxious to take his new tricycle out for a spin, so we'll eventually take a walk around the neighborhood.

We had all of my sisters and their families, my mom, Todd's mom & Don, my grandparents and the Hoopes family all over for Christmas dinner. If I do say so, myself, I think it went pretty well. The paparazzi was out in full force, with about 6 cameras going at any given time. Gabriel loved having everyone over and as each person left he gave them giant hugs and wouldn't let go. I think that he must have been trying to go home with some of them.

After the final goodbye, our family, alone again, snuggled together on the couch and talked about our favorite parts of the day. Gabriel took in a deep breath and fell asleep in less than a minute. Paige says her favorite gift was fingernail polish (I could have saved a lot of money), Taylor couldn't narrow it down to just one, and Todd enjoyed the food (huge surprise). Taylor was stunned when I told him that right then, when we were all snuggling as a family was my favorite part of the whole day.

Happy Holidays!