Oh My Gosh! Look at All Those Presents!

It's hard to remember back to Christmas morning- it all seems like a bit of a blur. The kids had a wonderful (though overstimulating) Christmas.

I attempted to make a nice Christmas Eve dinner after I got home from church with Lira. I made salad, Vareniki and Pelmini, along with sausage that I bought at the russian market. (The sausage wasn't very good, though!) After dinner we opened gifts from friends and extended family. Ken and I exchanged most of our gifts, too. The kids were so excited, and they did a wonderful job with being greatful for their gifts. I was pretty good about not crying until I opened the gift from Lira. It was a little wall-plaque that said, "Home is Where Your Mom Is" and the flood gates opened! Afterwards, they got a call from Santa, who strangely sounded a little like my dad!? Hmmm... go figure!

Anways, after talking to him, they agreed to put out chocolate chip cookies for him and crackers for the reindeer. They got ready for bed, and though they were INCREDIBLY excited, they didn't give us a hard time about it. We read the book, Twas the Night Before Christmas, and the kids went to bed.

The next morning, Lira woke us up (Timmy was already in bed with me.) We tortured them by telling them they needed to wait at the top of the stairs until we plugged in the Christmas Tree and made coffee! (My parents did that to me as a child, I have to pass on the tradition!) I got the video camera and taped their expressions when they came down and saw all the gifts under the tree. It was absolutely PRICELESS! Lira looked like she was going to pass out with her eyes so wide and Timmy looked like his brain would pop open! He jumped, shook, and yelled, "Oh My Gosh! Look at All Those Presents!"

An amazing day. The four of us drove up to NJ for Christmas dinner with my family and spent the next couple days with my parents in PA. The kids received lots of great gifts from so many people. It will always be a treasured Christmas- for the entire family. We came home a day or so early because the kids were in overload. Let's just say it wasn't a low-key Christmas. Live and learn. Now that we're home, the kids are getting back to normal. (I'm still trying to relax from it all, though!) Ken's back at work- lucky him! ;) His job over the past four days has been a "toy engineer!" He's had to put together all the toys and find working batteries! His first of many Daddy duties that comes with Christmas!