Christmas Morning 2009

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas morning is always such an exciting time. This year Dakota, my early riser, woke up TOO early and had a really hard time trying to go back to sleep so we could all get up at a reasonable time... like 5:00.

Christmas morning starts with the opening of stockings. The rule is that when you get up you can get right into your stocking but everything else has to wait until everyone is awake and up. After finally going back to sleep for an hour or so Dakota was still the first one up.

Dakota, surprised and excited by the size of his pile of presents.

Dakota couldn't wait for Marina to open the present he had bought her.It was three pretty scarves for her to wear with her outfits. He saw them in an ad and had Carol take him to the store so he could buy them for Marina all on his own. He is so thoughtful!

Then Marina gave Dakota the gift she had bought him...

...a Matchbox car VW Thing and a big Matchbox Truck that carries other cars on it. Dakota is a huge Matchbox car fan.

I wish we saw more of this at our house:

Marina is looking pretty excited about her pile of gifts too, even though most are too big for wrapping.

Marina had been wanting to redo her bedroom so she was pretty thrilled to find a whole new bedroom just waiting to be put together and put into place!

To go on her bed she got a new comforter/pillow set in the black & green color scheme that she wanted.

Clothes are an OK gift if they are as cool as this Harry Potter T-shirt!

What could be in the nice big package this messy-haired-daddy is holding?

Ah! Exactly the new Memoryfoam pillow I was hoping for!

Posing with mama and the cool present they picked out for her...

...a special Monkey Bread pan so she can make more of her famous Monkey Bread!

Hooray for new Playmobil sets! Kota got a new float plane and also a cool log cabin.

Shhhh.... don't tell Carol what's in those boxes but it's jammies and a pair of sweats.

Here is Dakota with his last packages...

... the Nintendo DS that he has wanted for 3 years! YAY!

What a terrific Christmas Morning! Dakota celebrates with a little "happy dance".

I love my new sweater and turtleneck!

Marina didn't waste any time getting down to putting her new bedroom furniture together. Here she is working on the bookshelf/dresser/desk from Ikea.

This was the first Christmas in a long time that mom & dad and Aaron & Dani & the girls hadn't spent the morning at our place and had brunch with us. We really missed having everyone there but it was fun spending that time with just our family. With an early Christmas Dinner at Grandpa & Grandma Wheeler's house there just wasn't time for everyone to come over in the morning. Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Dinner will be the subject of a separate blog posting...

Christmas Eve

The tradition at our house on Christmas Eve is that right before bed the kids open up the gift of a new story book and then we read them together and head to bed. It is something we've done since they were both toddlers. They look forward to it, it is a sweet time that we share together as a family and it is also a good way to unwind and settle down on Christmas Eve. I remember as a kid how hard it was to settle down and get to sleep with all the anticipation of what Christmas will bring. This quiet time we spend together before bed helps.

Dakota's excitement comes through loud and clear in these photos!

We all take turns reading...

...and listening.

What special traditions do you have for Christmas Eve?

Salish Lodge Brunch

One of our Holiday traditions is that every year around during the winter holiday season Aaron & Dani, Mom & Dad and Carol & I go out to a nice dinner together. We used to all exchange gifts at Christmas but it got to where it was more obligatory than celebratory. So we decided that, since none of us really go out that often, it would be really nice to all go together once a year, leave the kids at home and have a really nice adult dinner together. To make it even more fun we added a little gift exchange to the tradition. So every year around Thanksgiving we pick names & get something special for that person and bring it along to our holiday dinner.

This year we settled on my favorite restaurant... The Salish Lodge. We altered our tradition just a tiny bit by deciding to do a brunch rather than our normal dinner. I was thrilled. It's been several years since I've been to The Salish and I love to have their multi-course Country Breakfast.

Sunday afternoon after morning meeting we met at Aaron and Dani's and all carpooled up to brunch. We've had mild weather this winter but this was one of just a few really cold days and we expected there would be snow up in the foothills of Snoqualmie. It was a perfect day for a holiday brunch!

Waiting for our table. The gift-wrapping gets fancier every year!
Mom and Dad in front of the Salish tree.
And Aaron & Dani too. Seated and pouring over the choices. While we were waiting for the food we got the gift exchange under way. Aaron had mom's name this year. She got tickets to the Flower & Garden Show and pictures of the grandkids. Aaron had taken all 4 of the kids to get their pictures taken together; they turned out pretty good too! Awwww... aren't the pictures cute! Dad had Carol's name...

....and he got her a beautiful sweater in autumn colors that looks really nice on her. Then came a little shocker. It was Dani's turn to hand out her present and she handed it to... DAD! Yikes! I thought I had dad's name! Figures that I would get mixed up and shop for the wrong person! So dad opened the first of two nice fluffy soft navy blue bathrobes.

Dani received her beautifully wrapped present from Carol. The little box had a pair of nice earrings and a bracelet with a subtle snowman pattern.

And the big box was a Panini maker... exactly what Dani wanted!

Hmmm... this is familiar. Dad is opening up more gifts! This time a work shirt and, yes, you guessed it... a nice nice fluffy soft navy blue bathrobe.

My turn. Mom handed me the best-wrapped gift of the night. In the smaller box was exactly the gift I most wanted... a new can opener!

You can't tell from the picture just how sparkly the tree gift-topper was... it was as sparkly as can be! You also can't tell from the picture that inside was a very pretty half-zip taupe-colored sweater that I love wearing.

At that point the food arrived and everyone had an enjoyable meal as the snow continued to come down outside and the real fire in the fireplace crackled merrily. It was all very festive.

By the time we finished brunch it was almost dark outside.

We walked over to the Snoqualmie Falls Lookout for a few more pictures.

It had been cold for several days and there were all kinds of beautiful ice formations around the falls. As the waterfall hits the bottom it splashes out and sends up a mist which froze all along the perimeter. It was really beautiful.

Finally it was time to head home, all squished into Aaron & Dani's Durango, heading out into the snowy winter night.