Waiting to come downstairs on Christmas morning.
I LOVE Christmas. It is the only holiday for which I decorate and it is the only holiday I really get excited about. I loved it even more this year because it was on a Sunday, and we only had one hour of church!
I am not one for letting kids go crazy and open all their presents in a mad frenzy. I like to see what they get and their reactions. So we sit down together and try to open one present at a time. I say try because invariably it is just too difficult for one child to patiently sit through this torture. Well, in an effort to increase their torture this year, we said they could open their stocking, play with their Santa gift, and pick two presents to open and then the rest we would leave until after church. Church was at 11:00 am for one hour which stretched in to one and a half hours. Ahhhhhhh! We had a quick lunch and FINALLY we sat down to open the rest of our presents.
Christopher pulled off a major surprise. I got an iPad. I knew that his work was supposed to be giving him one for some great achievement at work, but I didn't think he would give it to me. His note on the package said "Take this one back. I dare you." I may or may not have possibly, likely returned a present or two in the past. Amy finally found her present (see Christmas Traditions post) wrapped in a much larger box and was thrilled with her new iPod. I suppose there's a little fudging of the truth in the weeks before Christmas.
Shortly after Amy's birthday, she decided that she wanted to upgrade her 3rd generation iPod to a 4th generation one because there was always the possibility that Misha might get my 4th generation iPod and it wouldn't do for a younger sister to have something better. So she sold her iPod and pooled her birthday money in hopes of buying a new one. Chris and I convinced her to let us deposit the money in our account so that if we happened to see a good deal online, we could buy it for her with her money. She was about $25 short. We decided to be "the Best Parents Ever" and make up the difference and buy the iPod for Christmas. That's when we had to tell Amy that the best deals on iPods were after Christmas and that she should wait. Oh the lack of patience my oldest child exhibits.
Funny thing, as we were driving to the temple with Audrey and Amy mentioned that she was waiting on buying her iPod until after Christmas, Audrey starts in with, "Are you crazy? Everyone knows that the best deals are before Christmas...." and so on and so on. Chris and I just sat laughing in the front seat. She was right. So Amy was thrilled when she unwrapped her big package to find the smaller package she had been searching for inside. There's a lot of satisfaction to pulling off a surprise.
Amy found this cool hat for Misha. If you know Misha, you will not be at all surprised that she wore it for two days straight.
Kristen was thrilled with her look alike doll. And it looks amazingly a lot like her.
I had been waiting for the moment when Chris opened this present since September. He had made comments over the years about how nice it would be to have his missionary journal typed so that he could easily search it for talks and for remembering things. I decided that I was going to type it for him and not knowing how long it would take, I started typing in September. It took me three weeks of six to seven-hour days of typing. How did I spend so much time typing you ask? I hurried to complete my cleaning in the morning, I typed late in to the evenings, and after school I kind of ignored my children. I told them what I was doing and swore them to secrecy. They seemed to understand the special significance of this time.
I made a note on the wrapped present that it was to be opened last, and the girls and I sat quietly watching as Christopher opened his gift. For three weeks in September I typed.
