Christmas Day came faster than ever this year. It was an unusual one for us, filled with generosity from family and friends, plus some great surprises from Santa. The children also gave to one another from our annual dollar store shopping trip, which always end up being favorite gifts.
Each year we hang up sheets that block the view to the presents. The kids managed to find a hole to peek through with their binoculars to see the names on the tags. Then the whole sheet came down with too much tugging. The binoculars were funny though.
One of my favorite parts is taking forever making hot chocolate as they wait on the stairs dying to come down and see all the loot.
Here's some of our favorite gifts.
Carter was one lucky kid and got his very own "kid phone" to take care of. When he saw it he shouted, "You trust me?" Here he is taking a picture of me while I take a picture of him.
You can't see him well, but our new dog hid out under the tree.
This was my gift from Doug. He made me a little study corner in my bedroom with my old teacher fridge stocked with Dr. Pepper, snacks, an area for my textbooks, a poster of my college, my vision board, a back massage chair and a charge station. It was very sweet and covered with a huge sheet for the big reveal.
Doug's mom gave us a karaoke machine which has been a lot of fun. Haleigh and I go crazy and I even got a great video of Doug singing "Shout" to blackmail him with one day.
All in all, a great day. The kids were so happy and we enjoyed spending the day together relaxing, having fun and playing with new toys. To be honest, I was dreading this holiday season with very strategic meal planning, extremely almost no spending budget, and more wishes and desires than could come true. But, we got through it and the kids felt blessed and loved.
