Christmas Day

On Christmas morning the kids did not wake up early. I was up all alone waiting... That should have been my first clue that something was wrong.  My second clue should have been when Kate asked for water.  We can never get that girl to drink.  We push fluids with her like crazy but she rarely asks for a drink.

The tree just before everyone woke up. I wrapped everything in silver and white this year.  

Kate was not really herself. And she had a very funny reaction to the bike Santa brought her.

All Kate asked for was a bike and a play tent.  She talked about the bike for weeks because she rides bikes with her friends in the neighborhood and her two good friends had recently moved up to "big" bikes with gears. She wanted a bike with gears and she wanted it to have black tires (for skidding).  She had a very clear vision for this bike and it was kind of hard to find one like that for her size.  Santa looked very hard. He finally found a pink one (she wanted "sky blue").

I really expected her to be soooooooo excited when she saw the bike.  If you watch the video you'll see that she was kind of underwhelmed.  At first, I was upset because I thought she was acting spoiled.  We try very hard not to spoil our kids.  I know that they are not deprived. I know they are blessed.  But Dave and I are very intentional in what we give and don't give our kids. Harry and Will both have jobs (I need to tell y'all about Harry's soon).  We don't buy them things unless it is their birthday or Christmas.  In fact, Will and Harry barely got any presents as they have other special things they just got or are getting.*see note at bottom.

Untitled from Kim S on Vimeo.

But then I slowly started to understand Kate's reaction.  First, she was sick.  She had 104 temperature which I quickly discovered just after she came downstairs.  Secondly, she was very intimidated by the bike.  It looked scary to her.  She loves it now and rides it everyday but it scared her at first.

What I do like about the video is that before any of them even opened a gift, they thanked us (following Will's lead).  

This year I told the kids they could ask for something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read.  And they were 100% fine with that.  They also got a few extras from relatives and in their stockings.

(Will getting a key fob, Kate loves books, Harry got a Vineyard Vines T-shirt and Dave got some new cutting boards)  I felt really bad about Harry opening that Vineyard Vines box. He asked for 2 or 3 small things for Christmas. One was a Vineyard Vines t-shirt.  I ordered one on sale and got Kate one too.  I accidentally mislabeled them and Harry opened Kate's by mistake. He was a little disappointed when he opened it thinking it was his and was way too small:)  We figured out the mistake and he was fine once he opened his.  That was the first time that either I or Santa mislabeled gifts:)

This book was one of my favorite gifts to give on Christmas morning.  This is Harry's favorite book. It is called Home of the Brave.  I found a first edition hardback and had the teacher who introduced this book to Harry (one of his all time favorite teachers) write in the front of it.  I also added an inscription.  I know Harry will always treasure it.

Harry's other gift was a new lacrosse shaft.  He loves it. He played with it this weekend and scored a few goals.  So, I guess it works;)

Will only asked for one thing and it was a fancy, preppy belt.  Luckily, I found it on sale:)

Oh and Dave surprised Harry with some waders for when they go fishing. I know he loved those.

Excuse Kate rubbing her nose here...

Untitled from Kim S on Vimeo.

Dave also surprised Kate with her own set of golf clubs.  They all go golfing or to the driving range and Kate was using very old hand me down clubs from the boys.  The grips had melted and were a mess.  She was thrilled to have her own clubs.







Here she is winking as she gets a feel for them:)




At Christmas Eve Mass, Monsignor was telling us that he got oranges in his stocking as a kid.  My kids thought that was pretty funny. Fruit? In your stocking? Then I told them that in fact, my grandma (God rest her soul) used to put oranges and whole walnuts and a silver dollar in our stocking growing up too. So as a joke, we put an orange in Will's stocking.

After gifts, we had our traditional big Christmas breakfast that I make but the rest of the day is kind of a blur.  Dave bought me a nice flat screen TV for our room for Christmas (yes, I love a TV in the bedroom..as I watch TV in bed almost every night).  We spent a lot of the day watching movies (we liked Parental Guidance) and being lazy. I didn't take any more photos and I don't think any of us even got out of our pajamas all day.

So, I had set the dining room table and made a special gluten free dessert and Dave made a homemade pie. We cooked a beef tenderloin and a ham and all of the side dishes for Christmas dinner.  We were supposed to have Dave's brother and his whole family over for dinner but we told them about the flu and they opted out. Can't say I blame them.  We still cooked all the food and our nephew came over to pick some food up to bring back to their house for dinner.  We sure did miss them on Christmas day.

(I think this is a phone pic)

So, all in all, it was a good Christmas.  It certainly was not our best but I know it could have been worse so I am counting our blessings.

* as you know, Will got a car in November so he really did not get much for Christmas.  And Harry is going to France and Spain in March on a school trip so he did not get much either.  They knew this before Christmas and were fine with it.