Christmas Day 2006

What a blessed holiday! This morning Judah woke up around 7:00, but we didn’t get up until around 7:30. Ezra wasn’t awake yet, and there was a large surprise in the living room so Michael played with Judah in his room while I made breakfast (raspberry buckle – blueberries were too expensive).\par
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When the breakfast was in the oven and we could wait no longer, I woke Ezra up and we took the boys out and let them open their stockings. Judah tore through his pretty quickly, but Michael had to keep encouraging Ezra to take more out, which was to be the pattern throughout the day. They both had cars and trucks which they were excited about, but Ezra thought he had died and gone to heaven when the first item on his menu for the day was a chocolate covered marshmallow Santa Clause.\par
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After that mess had been cleaned up, the buckle was still in the oven, so we returned to the living room and\’c3\’82\’c2\~had our final Advent time – a short reading in the Bible and lighting all 5 of the candles. Then we let the boys pull the afghan off of the top of their new bouncing stationary rocking horse! Ezra was quite enthused about the stranger in the living room – patting it on the side and going up and trying to touch his nose to the horse’s. Judah was a little nervous, though, when he tried to ride the horse and ended up deciding just to stand at the side and rock it back and forth for a while. We let the idea settle and opened the rest of our Christmas presents. Judah was very excited about the Playdoh (from Grandpa Lew and Phyllis), although he was disappointed not to be able to play with it right away.\par
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Breakfast was ready, so we ate that, then prepared to go to Michael’s parents for our family Christmas celebration. We got there around 11:30 and soon opened our gifts from them and vice versa. The boys had a blast playing with their new gifts – and all of Uncle Zane’s new toys as well! We had to keep trying to calm Judah and Zane down as they were continually going crazy in that typical 3-year-old-sugar-high-excited-out-of-their-mind sort of way!\par
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The rest of the day was spent in eating good food, watching old family videos, supervising boys (although all three took nice long naps in the afternoon!), watching football (not I!), playing Sudoku (myself and Rosanne, who helped me), reading, chatting, and playing poker (Michael and his siblings). It went quite well, and was fun for all.\par
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When we got home around 8:00 the boys were still full of energy, so they played some more with their new toys. Judah has lost his shyness regarding the new horse and it promises to provide hours of fun in the future! Unfortunately, Ezra can’t get up on it himself, but he’s still a little nervous about being actually on it anyway, so short supervised bouts are about all he needs.\par
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We put the boys to bed (although they weren’t really tired), and that brings us to now! It’s been a good Christmas, worth all of the preparation, but I am so happy to be done with it now! No more makingn cards, no more shopping for gifts, no more parties – just normal life for a week and then tax season. I’m even kind of looking forward to tax season as I tend to think of it as the time when I get my life in order!\par
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So, Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy New Year! God Bless!