This year I have felt and enjoyed the Christmas spirit all month long. We have done activities and baking and stories and snuggling. Consumed lots of hot chocolate and rocked by the christmas tree. It has been such a wonderful christmastime. Hunter always determined every year to see Santa kept "hearing him" and so he did not fall asleep until almost one a.m. The girls were out like a light as usual. The next morning as we always do we interviewed the kids about what they had heard the night before. "I heard him on the roof and as he was leaving I actually saw part of his belt and his boot" came the excited report from Hunter. Emma eyes as wide as could possibly get jumped up and down saying "Me heared the jingle bells last night and Santa comed and gived me presents under my tree." What did you hear Ave we asked her. Looking disbelieving at her siblings she matter of factly stated, "I didn't hear anything. Nothing. I was just sleeping." Ha ha ha. The big excitement of the stockings was the fact that Emma got the pink loofah that she had been wanting. I don't know many two year olds that care about such things but she does. After using mine once in my shower she was hooked and had been asking for a pink one. So funny.
The pace of the present opening was perfect. Starting with Em each kid opening one and a time watching each other open. Being so cute about getting excited for each other when one of them would open something they had really hoped for. Once they opened they spent time looking over each thing before going over to find their next gift. It made it last a long time which was fun. Hudson spent the first part of the morning snoozing in daddy's arms.
All the Burch kids got some new pots, pans, and play food for the playhouse.
Hudson and his new Sully stuffed animal from Monsters Inc.
We let each of his siblings sit by him and open one of his gifts for him and then show it to him. This was so hilarious and fun for the kids. Hudson was wide awake by this point and had his eyes open huge and looking around at all the fuss. Smiling at the kids as they talked to him about his presents and showed them to him.
Emma's top item on her list was a doctor kit. Another blog post for a funny story about all that. When she opened it up she started clapping and yelling "look Mom it has a squeezer!!" pointing to the blood pressure cuff. Needless to say that everyone received a checkup and I have had my blood pressure taken like fifty times in the last three days.
Hudson LOVES his new playmat from Grandma and Mom loves it too.
Avery found a pair of doll ice skates in her stocking and right away was insisting that she knew that Santa had brought her an American doll. She soon found out she was right. She was all trendy with a scarf, tights, boots and fun glasses. Avery loves her and has a great time changing out Hannah's shoes almost as much as she switches her own.
Hunter didn't have one specific thing that he was mostly hoping for but he loved his remote control truck and his Exploder NERF gun. It did melt my heart though when he opened a present from Deke and I and quickly announced it was probably his favorite. A DC sweatshirt that he had been eyeing for a couple of weeks and a cool ZooYork shirt. He had tried them on and Deke and I had told him we would think about it. He had asked us several times if we could go back and get them and we secretly already had. He was so excited and I wanted to cry because it is such a pre teen thing to be excited to get clothes for Christmas. Can't I just keep him nine???
The girls got a couple of gifts from Mom and Dad to share. Including some Calico Critters for their dollhouse that is still under renovation.
Eden and Ave both got new pink razor scooters which they enjoyed riding together.
The kids were all at such fun ages this year. All still loving the magic of Santa, Emma actually getting the concept this year and looking forward to it and Hudson getting passed around for us each to have a chance to snuggle. Deke and I just kept looking at each other smiling and later talking about how much we love the different stages our kids are in right now. Merry Christmas everyone from the Burch's!!!!!
