Some Highlights of Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve, Justin ran up the stairs to bed, so excited. I was behind him and heard him say, "Tomorrow is Christmas Day! I'm going to sleep in!"

I thought to myself, he probably won't, but couldn't help but chuckle and think/hope that he might just sleep in because we were enjoying a break from waking up early. Sleeping in is appreciated more than ever since the kids started Public School and have to wake up much earlier on school days ;0)

The result? He was up at 6am and quietly came downstairs and gazed at the presents under the tree ;0)

When I got up at 7:30, he came rushing up the stairs and just as I was coming out of the bathroom, he said, "Merry Christmas Mom! I counted the presents under the tree and I think there are 20!" (We didn't put them all under the tree until after they went to bed because we didn't want them to make the presents their focus of Christmas).

Ashleigh and Chris got up at around 8am and then we enjoyed our morning, opening our gifts to each other and also from friends and Grandparents.

Fast forward to this morning, I thought for sure Justin would sleep in because we allowed both Justin and Ashleigh to stay up until 9:45pm! I woke up at 6am because I thought it would be nice to have some time to myself to wake up before everyone else did. At 6:19am, Justin came bounding down the stairs. I asked him what he was doing up so early and he said, "I want to brush my teeth!" (He and Ashleigh both received an electric tooth brush for Christmas. I think it is cute that they call them "Robotic tooth brushes". After all, their dad is a "Robotics Technician".

Another highlight:

In the early afternoon, while we were preparing to put our turkey in the oven, we received a knock at the door. A couple of teenagers gave us a box of oranges! How sweet! I thanked them and then watched out front. I saw a van and some other teenagers, so thought it was a youth group blessing people. How thoughtful!

I kept looking out the window (I guess because I am a snoop), but just couldn't get over the fact that we were blessed with a box of oranges! Then, I happened to notice one of the adults was a woman that I'd met through home schooling, so I ran out to say hi! She and her husband have nine children and have had some rough Christmases themselves, so they just wanted to bless people. I'm still in awe.