Christmas Morning!! Finally~ The kids were so excited. We have always done Christmas morning the same way ever since Ethan was little! The funny thing about my family is that I have 4 kids ranging from ages 3-16 and only one of them knows what to expect! Ethan has been great at filling in Victoria and Ezra on all of the Christmas fun that is about to come. He has been so excited and trying so hard to explain what to expect. He's been very helpful. He is a great kid. Our kids are weird because they sleep in on Christmas. I was awake and dressed with breakfast made before anyone woke up around here. We had Ezra and Mason awake by 8:30 and Ethan strolled in around 9:00ish!~ At that point we sent Ezra in to 'check' to see if Vika was awake. Sure enough she was!
We all gathered in our bedroom to eat pancakes before we went to check if Santa really came. That's always the trickiest part of the morning, but very important for happy kids!
After eating they all lined up youngest to oldest (they thought it was funny that it was shortest to tallest - we thought it was funny that this may be the last year that's the case!). They made the walk into the family room. They were all so excited! It was so fun to watch all of them with their different perspectives. Ezra didn't really understand what was happening but was thrilled at the outcome, Ethan totally understood what was coming and was so happy and excited, and Victoria had no real clue what in the world all the fuss and secrecy was about but she was so overwhelmed and giddy about everything, and Mason was happy just to be there and to hear the sweet sounds of 'puppy.'
Victoria was thrilled to finally get her chipmunks. Every time we walk into the grocery store she searches to see if they have all of them. Since October they have only had 5 of the 6 so she was pretty surprised to get them all!
Spen was a great videographer this year. He got all dressed up for the occasion and let's be honest, everything is so much more fun when he is around.
Ezra was sooo happy when he saw all of his balloons. He wanted to play with them all and hold them all. He had Ethan count them for him and was so happy. He loved that he had his cuppy cuppy cup cakes and he played with his train .
All of the kids were very attentive to Mason and fetching his puppy and trying to give him paper to tear apart. Mason wasn't so sure about all this crazy Christmas stuff and all of the kids were so great to him. It was so sweet to watch as the mom. I loved seeing Victoria hand him paper and toys and play with him, Ethan kept trying to hold him and talk to him to keep him entertained, and Ezra just kept giving him things to throw. What great kids.
It's always fun that my parents and my Grandma Pete come over to see the kids. The frustrating part for them is that my kids don't really do a whole lot for them to see! They open one gift at a time and then they play with it for a while. By the time my parents left around noon to get ready for church we had opened only a few gifts. My cute Granny was loving playing with the balloons and Spencer tied one on her wrist where it stayed all morning!
The best part of Christmas for me is watching my kids give each other gifts. They get so excited to see each other open them and to see their reaction. Mason was slow, but they were all patient with him as he enjoyed the boxes and wrapping.
This year we gave each of the kids $40 and the opportunity to earn extra money to use to buy each other Christmas gifts. Victoria spent that and everything she had on her gifts. She went to Build-A-Bear to get Mason a bunny that had music buttons in its paws. She was very thoughtful.
Ezra gave Mason a Perry the Platypus that didn't really last long in Mason's arms! Perry was quite a hit with all of the kids.
Mason gave Ethan his BYU pillow pet and I think that was one of his favorite gifts of the day. He was so happy to finally have a pillow pet and that it was even BYU made it so much better!
Spencer was fun all morning and got a few gifts. He has a money bottle that he keeps in our closet that broke so I gave him his electronic bank. We kept telling Victoria that we love that she has an 'American smile' now and she didn't really know what we were talking about, so Spen took a few of his pictures with his 'Ukrainian smile!' We sure thought it was funny.. after looking back at pictures he's pretty accurate actually!
Ethan was elated when he got a bank too. He was so grateful and happy about everything he got. He is the one that really started our Christmas' taking forever because he gets so excited to try everything out that we just decided we should let him rather than hurry him along to the next present! Last year Christmas officially ended on New Year's Eve. Hopefully this year isn't that long, but it really is fun to let them enjoy their gifts!
Ethan's 'big' gift from us was his radio. When Victoria got here in April she was pretty involved with listening to her music. It was really one of the first things she wanted to do. Ethan is just the kind of kid that immediately ran down to his room and brought up his for her to use. Well, he never got his radio back and never once said a word to Victoria about it. He just decided that it was more important to him for her to have it. He did ask me one time if sometime he could get one for his room again sometime. He was very happy to get a radio/CD/mp3 player.
Our big gift for Victoria was her watch. The one I got her when she first came works but you can no longer change the time. We thought she'd really love it.
After Christmas had gone on for a few hours Ezra decided that it was finally time for him to try his cuppy cakes. He was very nice to take them around and share them with everyone that was there. He had us sing a Merry Christmas song - I'm thinking it was his equivalent to a Birthday song?- and we all ate cuppy cakes.
Victoria was very excited to give Ezra his drill set. It had a battery drill that he could screw in his screws. He played with that thing for a long time.
She gave Ethan a Socker Bopper for him to try out his Taekwondo. He loved that too. We had a very successful Christmas morning. This year Christmas fell on a Sunday and we had 1:00 church to get ready for. It was a nice break to get all ready to go and listen to the speakers and the music that was prepared for Christmas. It really helped us to remember why we celebrate Christmas and to be grateful for all that Christ does for us in our lives.
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