Christmas 2015

This Christmas was extra exciting as it was Elise's first and Carter is old enough to really enjoy and get excited about Santa. Our festivities began on Christmas Eve around 4:00 when my parents arrived. Carter was so excited making trip after trip out to their car to help carry in the presents they brought. Then he stood and admired them all under the tree. We enjoyed a special dinner of ham with cherries, scalloped potatoes, sweet potatoes, dressing, and rolls. Carter had asked to drive through Christmas lights so Ty, Jeremy, and my parents took him after dinner while I bathed Elise and put her to bed. When Carter returned he took a bath and then we read some Christmas stories. Then it was time to set the cookies and milk out for Santa. I was sure to remind Carter the milk went next to the plate on the placemat since he poured the milk on top of the cookies last year. We were all surprised that he really wanted to eat Santa's cookies and then really wanted to drink his milk as he carried it over. He was so funny! He went down quickly and easily for bed as he was quite tired!

Elise was excited for a special Christmas Eve dinner!

Putting Santa's cookies by the fireplace.

You know that saying, as excited as a kid on Christmas? Well, that's how I felt that night. I was so excited thinking about Carter opening his presents and seeing what Santa brought that I couldn't sleep. When I finally fell asleep I woke up multiple times and struggled to fall back to sleep. It was ridiculous! I would wake up all excited thinking Carter would probably wake soon and then I'd check my phone only to find it was 3am! I finally fell into a hard sound sleep around 5am which was interrupted 45 minutes later when Carter was up and ready for the day. I talked him into laying down in his bed for a while. So he and I headed in and laid down for a bit. We heard Elise a little before 7 so we got up to head in. I pointed out that Santa had left him something under his little tree on his bedside table. We took his car book which was complete with wheels and his package of fruit snacks into Elise's room. While I nursed Elise, Carter noticed she also had a car book under her tree and pointed out that she didn't have fruit snacks, concluding that Santa must know she can't have them. We read both books, Carter ate his fruit snacks, and we played for a bit. 

Carter and Elise playing with their car books from Santa.

Finally at 7:30 I just wasn't able to hold him off anymore and we headed into the kitchen/playroom to check the fireplace for a sign that Santa had come. Carter actually bypassed all of that to see his Oma and Opa who were sleeping on the futon. Once they were up he ran over to check everything out. He was quite excited to see the unwrapped presents by the fireplace and the stockings filled with goodies. He went to pull down a stocking which was held up with one of those heavy stocking holders, and the stocking holder fell off the mantle and hit him in the arm. We helped him get his stocking and he enjoyed looking through it all. Later he went to pull down the dog stocking to show them when I had left the room and the stocking holder fell and hit him in the face. It was pretty rough with him getting a big bump by his eye and a bloody scratch under his nose. I cuddled him for a while and he was feeling much better. After the crying that ensued after that accident Ty woke up and came in. We all ate breakfast while we waited on my brothers to arrive before we opened presents.

Playing with the wagon Elise got from Santa.

Carter loved the bath tub finger puppets Santa brought for Elise.

After breakfast Elise went down for her morning nap and we opened Santa presents. Pretty much each present Carter opened he wanted to stop to put it together and play with it before opening any more. Each book he opened, he wanted to read before opening his next present. It was a lot of fun and extended the present opening by a decent amount. Once we were finished by the fireplace we headed into the living room to open presents. Carter was really excited and kept wanting to open presents that didn't belong to him. He helped me and my mom sort the presents into piles for who they were for. Then he opened more presents. When he was done opening presents he played with his new train tracks while Elise started to open presents since she had woken up from her nap. But then Carter wanted to go outside. So we stopped opening presents while he played outside with my mom, my dad, and Jeremy. Thomas and Ty rested inside and I cleaned up all the wrapping paper and put toys away.

Sis was tired from her busy morning!

He got lots of books and took lots of reading breaks!

I had Carter come inside for lunch and a nap after about an hour outside. I laid down with him for his nap and fell asleep for about 15 minutes with him before getting up and heading in to open presents with everyone else. We like to play a guessing game with our presents. You can get multiple points for presents for guessing something broad and then getting more specific for an extra point. For example, guessing something is a piece of clothing and for an extra point guessing it's a jacket. You could also guess something is a movie and for extra points, the actual title of the movie. It's a lot of fun. We take turns, one person opening at a time and everyone watching and hearing their guess. Carter woke up as we were finishing our game and was content to play with his train some more while we finished opening. Then Elise woke up and we had her open her presents. She would start to rip the paper or pull tissue paper out of bags, but then get distracted with something else so it took her quite a while to get her presents opened and finally by the end I just opened her last few for her. I'd say her favorite toy was probably her eggs we got her. She had a blast pulling them out of the carton and opening them up.

Elise worked so hard to open her presents but kept getting distracted.

Another reading break.

It was nice to get all the paper, trash, and toys picked up once everything was opened. Carter, Elise, and I played in the hallway with Elise's new bowling set she got for Christmas while people loaded their presents into their cars. Then I headed out for a run while Carter, mom, and Elise walked to Jeremy's house where dad and Jeremy were working on putting together some of his Christmas presents. When I finished running I showered and drove over to pick up the kids since it had gotten dark and there are no sidewalks between our house and Jeremy's. We had leftovers for dinner so I pulled everything out and got Carter and Elise food while we waited on everyone else to head back over. That night after the kids were in bed we played a new game we got from my Uncle Doug which was quite funny. We had such a wonderful day and enjoyed all the time spent with our family. I know next year will be even more fun with Elise being more involved and Carter getting more excited about Santa!