Christmas Day, 2023

The kids weren't allowed to get us up until 7am.  I'd set my alarm and decided I would get up and shower before then, but then I realized that was a dumb idea, and turned my alarm back off.  I figured if I woke up of my own accord, I would shower.  Otherwise I would enjoy the sleep!  As it was, I rolled over at 4:35, checked the clock, realized that was WAY too early, and went right back to sleep.  I guess I needed the sleep more than the shower!

Once the lights were all turned on, the kids were allowed to stampede down the stairs:We let them open their stockings pretty quickly and without waiting for turns, since those mostly had the same things inside them: socks, underwear, a cookie cutter, oodles of candy, a few random, small toys (actual stocking stuffers, not the crazy expensive stuff that happens to be small so catalogs advertise them as "stocking stuffers"-- seriously, who's tossing AirPods or diamond earrings into a stocking and calling them stuffers????  sorry, random pet peeve moment here!).  Then we got into a rhythm of everyone taking turns opening presents (with a break for cinnamon rolls!) and it was just a lovely morning!

I have to explain this one: so Craig's two counselors in the bishopric have very similar yellow ties that they frequently manage to wear on the same day, so they'll be sitting up on the stand matching, and Craig never matches them.  So I bought him a yellow tie for Christmas thinking he could finally complete the set!  Unfortunately, his counselors got together and bought him the exact same tie and gave it to him a couple weeks before Christmas.  So here he is, getting a duplicate tie, of all things.  (Don't worry, we exchanged it.  Thanks, Amazon!)  But it was pretty funny.

Camille was absolutely enamored of her new stuffed animal elephants

This (understandably!) just had bows on it, so here's Craig acting surprised that underneath the bows is...  a rake!

Google is being difficult and putting my pictures out of order, but here are the kids opening their stockings

If your kids, like mine, are into Gravity Falls, then you'll recognize this as Dipper's hat...

We're also big fans of Across the Spider-Verse

Slinkies are STILL super fun!

Still loving her elephants

Bentley is still a big fan of Kanye West, despite his rather alarming mental health issues of late

Kendra did not get a lot of gifts this year, as she was requesting cash to pay for her upcoming marching band trip to Disney World (yes, I'm jealous).  So it was nice that she was so excited about one of the few presents she did receive!  You can't really see it, but she just opened up a pair of capybara earrings...

And Colton was very excited about this robotic velociraptor

Colton also got this super cool Jurassic Park Lego Set

If you look closely you can see that we've got Lex and Tim hiding behind the Range Rover, while Ian Malcolm is inside the other one (complete with water glasses!)

Once all the presents were opened, Craig and I got to work on the turkey and ham.  And then I got to shower and nap!  The rest of the day was mostly Craig and I in the kitchen while the kids played with their new toys and read their new books.  It was lovely.  And very merry indeed!