family sandwich: "I didn't get to see Santa"

Christmas came so fast this year, it was the busiest season yet for us and it was over all too quickly. Dave and Nalene came over Christmas Eve afternoon and the kids had been busy all day cutting out and decorating snowflakes and getting the table all decorated for dinner. They wanted it to look "snowy" so we hung some snowflakes with fishing line and we used some quilting batting on the table instead of a table runner.

We had big roast dinner with mashed potatoes and side salads and lit candles in the jars on the table and ate by their light and the light of the tree. Not going to lie it felt kind of magical. It definitely felt more like winter. We ate and talked about our favorite Christmas memories. Looking around the table at our kids happily munching away, eyes lit up with excitement for Santa I felt so blessed. The kids had tracked Santa all day on the NORAD website which was something we had never done before. Hunter was very interested in it. After dinner we did gingerbread houses and then the kids got into their jammies. We turned the fake fireplace on the tv, read a Christmas story, sang a couple of songs then just talked and snuggled with the kids. One of my favorite parts of Christmas Eve is listening to the kids talk about listening for Santa and giving me their step by step plans of what to do if they see him. Emma had talked about it all week. If she heard Santa she would go hug him and then ask to ride in his sleigh. "I will come right back mom and I will not lean over the edge when I ride" she told me for the tenth time that day. "I will ride with Santa and then Santa will hug me and I will say I love you Santa" she said grinning. That night when I tucked her in she laid eyes wide open. "I am going to listen for jingle bells and I know Santa will come see me" she reminded me. I love her. Avery had come up with an agreement with her siblings that if anyone heard Santa they would make sure to wake each other up so that they could all see him. So notes were written, cookies put out and oats sprinkled all over the front yard. We told the kids that we would do Christmas at 7 o' clock and they weren't to wake us or grandma and grandpa until then. Deke and I finally headed to bed at 1 o clock and had checked on the kids who were all sleeping soundly. Nalene's foot was bothering her so she slept out on the couch in the living room. At 3 am she heard a noise and woke up to see the shadows of Hunter and Avery crouched around the tree looking at presents. "What did your parents say?" she said startling them both and then shooing them off to bed. Hunter was up every hour on the hour for the rest of the night until 7 o clock. Poor Nalene. She said she would hear the door creak and he would start tiptoeing out of the room until she opened her eyes and sent him back to bed. He was so excited he could hardly stand it. As we all headed out to look under the tree Hunter and Avery started examining gifts as Em just stood there. "I didn't get to see Santa" she whimpered on the verge of tears. My heart broke a little. Here were all these fun gifts waiting to be opened and yet this little girl had just really really wanted to see Santa. She didn't understand why she hadn't seen him because she had really wanted to. After a big hug and a reminder of how many kids Santa has to get to in one night she was okay and climbing off my lap to go and open presents.....

Our girls LOVE Frozen and Santa brought them Elsa and Anna dolls. Their reaction when they opened them was adorable.....

Hudson was hilarious and was more excited about ripping off the paper tiny piece by piece more than the actual toys at first. He would rip a small piece and hand it to someone and then rip another small piece and hand it again.

Hunter opened his last gift with great anticipation and then saw that the picture on the box was a space heater. Trying to act mature and not show his disappointment he said "Oh a small heater for when we do campouts, that's cool." We were dying. He actually thought he had gotten a portable heater!!!

When he opened it to dig out a smaller box containing an Ipod he was completely surprised. It was really cute. It is his first big electronic thing, he is going to really have fun with it and we both feel like he is responsible enough to take care of it. Surprise kiddo :):)