December 25th: Christmas Day! It was a wonderful, wonderful day! The kids were so excited, and so was I =) We all slept upstairs, as the week of sleepovers seemed to have caught up with us. DZ fell asleep in the afternoon on the couch yesterday, which never happens anymore. Consequently he was up late, and slept late. So Serenity, Maia and I had to be patient until he woke up. I had finally offered to go down and at least feed the girls when he woke up. Serenity had run out of patience by this point and she ran down and half unwrapped her present from DZ (an Elsa softie, she already knew he'd gotten it for her. Secret presents are hard for all of us =) We told her she needed to wait for the rest of us but she slipped up a couple more times along the way =)
We started with stockings. It's so sweet how much they love the fun little stuff. DZ got this light up ball he'd seen at target several times and he said, "It's just what I wanted!!" I think this Christmas could be a glow-in-the-dark theme, as a lot of the presents light up. The ball, there were some light up bouncy wands in the stockings and light up wiggle eggs, and Serenity got a fancy light up Elsa wand. Plus an Elsa bank that lights up and plays music, a glowing crystal science set (because of course she needed to make her very own frozen fractals, and a Snap Circuits light set. DZ got light up Magformers too. So lots of glowing fun. =)
What else was really exciting... DZ got green nail polish, which he immediately turned to Serenity and said, "Look, we got a new color!" Love that he wants to do things with his sister. =) His favorite present was his new "Choo-er." He never says shoot or gun, it's always a choo-er. This particular choo-er launches an airplane when you pull the trigger, and the body is like a runway. It is really fun! He also got a Zuma toy and his hovercraft and ninja turtle legos, and Leonardo's katana from Serenity. He also got a really big ball to play swinging soccer with, which got my very best gift wrap ever. We hid it inside the gingerbread house! His eyes got really big when we unlocked the door and said, "is this for me?" =)
Serenity carried her Elsa bank around with her like it was her best friend, and she found lots of reasons to push the button to listen to the song. =) She also transferred her money from her piggy.... one coin at a time so she could hear the music a LOT. Love it! One of my favorite moments of the morning was when she stopped opening presents to read her new Shel Silverstein book, Falling Up. She just snuggled on the couch to read, occasionally pushing the button on her Elsa bank with her toe. My girl =) She also got hello kitty training chopsticks, which she used today to eat edamame, pretzels, dried strawberries, eggs, and peanut butter. So I'd say she enjoyed that too =)
Maia chewed on a few of her toys, but she mostly enjoyed walking around with magformers and other random things. She got a baby Anna softie, some new board books, and a set of Boynton books to replace the ones she ripped the covers off and ate. So lots of fiber for her. =) Oh, and she got a new bath toy, since bath time is one of her favorite things now! If I'd gotten her a bath book it would have been even more perfect, both of her favorite things.
Eric got a new board game, Forbidden Desert, a Slytherin Beanie, and a deck of pirate cards from DZ. His favorite though was getting guitar lessons from Little Casey. =) He's scheduled for four of them, starting in January. So cool!
I got Anna and Elsa ornaments! So our Christmas was glow-in-the-dark, Frozen, and Paw Patrol. =) I also got a beautiful new wind chime. The homemade present this year was sort of for the kids but also for me. I appliqued their baby clothes to pillows that spell out their names. I love getting to see some of my favorite memories on something I know the kids will use like crazy. They are always dragging pillows around. =)
After the present opening we went back to playing Robot Turtles. It is an awesome game! Eric is starting to make the mazes really hard and they can still figure out a way through.
One of my favorite memories from this holiday season is snuggling Maia in the dark by the Christmas tree and nursing her and listening to Christmas music. I know those days are coming to an end soon, so I'm glad I got to savor them.
Tonight when the kids should probably have already been sleeping, we watched Miracle on 34th Street. It's one of my favorites, which Eric emphasized to the kids so there was no complaining about watching a movie that wasn't a cartoon =) I loved it, and the kids fell asleep snuggling on their new pillows =) Yay! Eric said I do Christmas well. =) I definitely enjoyed it! The kids said they loved everything but the best part was having a sleepover with Mama and Daddy =) Well, DZ said sleepover, Serenity said being with family =)
