Christmas Finally!

Christmas comes early....early in the morning that is....try 4:30 am. Ugh! I do not find it cute or fun to be woken at 4:30 for Christmas. Not even a little. We let the kids open stockings from Santa if they are up early (and the ALWAYS are!!). Then we finally roused out of bed around 6:00. 

Once we are up it is GAME ON!! And it's LOUD! Why do children talk SO loud early in the morning....when it's still dark outside....before I've had any caffeine??? Why?? 

I mentioned before that this year we were going very simple....very low cost. Paying double mortgage payments until the rental sells. So we decided the kids would each get three gifts. Three smallish things. It was awesome!! Simple and awesome! No matter what we can spend in the future we have decided that we will stick with the three gift rule. I read about this online over at Momastery. You tell your kids they get three gifts, just like Jesus. If they balk you ask why they should get more gifts than Jesus. And....if they balk again you tell them they will get frankincense. End of balking. Yes! It works beautifully! 

The other part of gift opening that I LOVE is the opening of Holiday Store gifts. Our kids' school does a Holiday Store. All of the items are goodwill type things. Actually some of them are brand new but everything is donated. The gym is laid out with gifts and each child gets to shop for a gift for EACH person they live with!! We have three kids at this school so this year 18 gifts came home! They gifts are all lovingly wrapped in Christmas paper and put under the tree. Our kids did such a great job of picking items for one another. It was truly my favorite part of the day. They would squeal and thank each other over hugs. Love!!

After gifts we have our traditional breakfast of strawberry crepes and bacon. Delicious!! Aunt Cinn and Uncle Jamie sent Christmas crackers. Fun!! PS....Cinn, Cam says he is sure you were laughing your hiney off since the crackers were FULL of small bits of confetti that was everywhere!! He got to sweep it up. :)

For Christmas dinner we walked to my in-laws. Yes! They live super close and we like it. It was a lovely day for a walk too. 

It was a magical and wonderful day. Family and food and fun. Perfect.