Merry Christmas!

So Christmas got off to a rather weird start. As normal, Joshua and Clara woke up first, so we went downstairs. This was what our living room looked like. They had no reaction. So I was like, "Oh why do you think there are presents?" And they looked at me like I was a moron and said, "Because it's Christmas. Can we have breakfast?" Uhm okay. 

Jason took quite some time to get up and get ready, so they actually had a long time to build anticipation. After they had their granola bars, they did get really excited and rode the rocking horse (Sorry, Hannah. You snooze, you lose. Literally.) and Clara's new bike since those things weren't wrapped. I didn't really plan on getting her a bike for Christmas, but I found this one of Craigslist for cheap and it had been ridden only a handful of times, so it just worked out. Finally Jason and Hannah came down and we did stockings. They were super excited about the musical instruments they got.

Next we took a break and ate our breakfast. But then it was time to open presents. I never really know if the kids will like what I choose or not, but this year they really did. Clara got a Calico Critters dollhouse and some of the actual Critters (bunnies, in her case).

Hannah got a new cash register and also some panda Calico Critters. The cash register is already a favorite item though it has yet to have batteries. Most toys come with batteries nowadays, but this one did not and it takes C Batteries. I literally didn't even know C batteries existed, so we don't have any, but she still really likes it so far and I predict her enjoyment will greatly increase once we get those weird batteries for it.

I got a few different things for Joshua. He is by far the easiest kid to shop for right now because he is a great age for toys. The girls I really struggle to think of things to buy and I never have gift ideas when people ask, but Joshua I could think of a ton more things to get him if I needed to. His big gift is an Imaginext castle. He has been kind of into soldiers and knights lately, so I thought he would enjoy it, and so far he loves it. It combines things that shoot, buttons, noise, and warfare. Seriously, what boy would not love this?

One other thing that Joshua loves right now is dressing up. So I got him a police uniform and also a tiny notebook and a marker. If there's one thing that kid-cop loves, it's writing "driving tickets". You can see several of the approximately 100 he wrote today on the floor.

Books aren't a very glamorous Christmas gift for a kid compared to a shiny new toy. However, they probably get more use than any of the toys because they generally last a long time and are used daily. After all the gifts were open, Clara got a little bit tired and wanted to read some of her new books. Michelle and Sam got the kids personalized story books. Clara's was about Clara the Fairy and she seemed to really like it and asked Jason to read it twice before declaring, "I think I'm tired". Of course this in no way means she wants to take a nap, but we did require her to take one, as well as the other two.

Jason took advantage of the momentary quiet and tried out his new coffee-maker. We had talked about maybe getting a Keurig for Christmas, but I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the money because Jason travels a great deal and he also sleeps until the last possible second a great deal of the time he isn't traveling so I wasn't sure he would use it all that much and I do not like hot drinks unless it is snowing or I am sick so I doubt I would use it more than five times a year. However, he found a really great deal on this one, so it made it a little more reasonable for the occasional use it is likely to get. It seems to work well and Jason was happy with the coffee he made.

After the kids woke up, we had a nice dinner of saeurbraten and watched Elf. It was a super slow and luxurious day that was a lot of fun.