christmas morning 2011

Christmas morning greeted our family with a nice----on time, wake time. I loove that our kids sleep until 7:30 on Christmas morning. No 5 am wake times in our house, yet! I was a happy mommy that I squeezed in my morning shower before the video camera had time to capture my bed head look. Landon had to tip toe in and wake Miller up with a jolly old "Merry Christmas" & a ho.ho.ho to finally get the ball rolling. As soon as he remembered what day it was, we could hardly keep him contained upstairs. The video was all cued up and I just had enough time to tame Eliza Kate's hair for such a joyous occasion. Oh the magic of Christmas morning....

Stocking time on the stairs is always a treat. I didn't grow up with this tradition of Santa filling up stockings with goodies. My mom was a wrapping queen and preferred every small trinket to be wrapped up under the tree.This is a tradition that we've carried through from Landon's side & I just love the thrill of stocking filling. This was a small task that I handed over to Santa Landon this year, and it was so nice to check this off my to-do list.

 Miller's stocking was filled with little odds and ends...mostly fun little conversation pieces. Underwear, Francesco from CARS II, gummy bugs, etc. I had to walk Eliza Kate's stocking to her to get her interested. I opened up all the goodies inside to perk her interest. Daddy picked out some cutey bracelets that she tried on right away. She half smiled. All the hustle and bustle first thing in the morning threw her off a bit!

Miller's face & reaction  to the gifts was priceless. Santa leaves his gifts upwrapped at our house...another Fokens tradition. The wrapped packages beneath the tree are from family members. Miller was thrilled with his new Transformer & Trio construction blocks. Luckily, we received his Santa DVD in the "St. Nick" of time. At the last minute, we SANTA ran out and scrambled for a Transformer toy that Miller requested on Santa's lap. Landon spent a good hour and a half following the instruction guide to figure out Miller's complicated new toy. It was a fun challenge & gave daddy something fun to put together.

 Miller made sure to let us know that he heard a "clatter" on the roof the night before. We all chuckled at his use of words. I love that he applied his new little vocabulary word from The Night Before Christmas in context. We enjoy hearing Poppy read this to us on our recordable Hallmark Christmas book from last year

Believe it or not,  Miller loves opening clothes and jammies. He was thrilled with his new racecar PJ's from mom and dad. He told us, " I always knew you would get me these". Really? As he was shaking boxes a few weeks back, he did comment that he thought there were jammies in his box. Hmm...I hope no one was spying on me as I wrapped up the special surprises.

I'll never forget the smile with cutesy dimples on this little mommy's face when she saw her Bitty Baby proudly sitting atop her new highchair. Eliza Kate just new this gift was especially for her. Santa decked Bitty Baby with all kinds of darling extras. Eliza Kate could not stop beaming with excitement. We finally picked a toy that she was visibly pleased with. A special "Dolliday" just for EK!

Miller took a seat to rest for a minute from the perch of the kiddos new craft table. I know he will love handwriting practice from a desk just his size. Eliza Kate needed a coloring station just her size too. Thank you Omi and Papa for this wonderful gift.

Eliza Kate knew just what to do with Bitty's pint sized baby bottle. She put on baby's new bib and begin giving Bitty her morning bottle. With a swig or two of her own, she was enjoying this new mommy chore. She loved putting her new snack food tray on bitty's chair. It was so entertaining to watch her finally interact with her doll.  I  Santa had just as much fun at the American Girl store picking it all out and waiting in a wrap around the store line to please my little girl on Christmas.

A tea set and a high chair...what's a girly left to want in life? Miller and EK loved serving me tea from the pink and purple plastic tea service set. This replaces the fancy china set in her room that is already chipped from playtime. Hooray for plastic! Oh, I can't wait for real tea party with my daughter.

Mario Kart was a Christmas morning surprise.I went back and forth with this gift. We don't want him spending hours on video games. but I think with lots of monitoring it will be a great game to enjoy as a family. Miller is somewhat shielded from toy commercials on TV as we watch  mostly PBS that he completely misses out on what to ask for. I still love that he has no expectations for gifts yet. I pray that this innocence lasts a few more years and we don't hear any "gimme, gimme" attitude in his vocabulary. When he opened this gift, he immediately recognized Mario but had no clue what to do with the box as there was nothing to build or interact with. He was blown away with the ability to drive the steering wheel and play a Wii game.

I needed to pop a motion sickness pill watching our little racecar driver navigate the course. He was turning all around &crashing right and left. Of course, all the crashing caused him to laugh uncontrollably with joy. With time, I'm sure he'll learn the wheel. I was happy that the set was a hit with our boy!

I got my Christmas squeezies in with my own special Christmas package with red bow on top before her morning snooze. Family time IS a wonderful Christmas gift. All of our gifting was exhausting to sweet thing. We put her down just in time for a Christmas breakfast of Pandulce.

When little sister was in her crib, Miller had his own little fun with Bitty. He said he was the daddy feeding Bitty tea on her tray. I love that Miller comments from time to time that all he wants to be when he grows up is a daddy.... The highest compliment Miller could afford to Landon for sure. He's really identifying with the male roll, minus playing with dolls and serving tea...ha! We joke that he's got his roles all confused as he thinks all daddys cook dinner at night. He often comments late afternoon, "What's daddy cooking for dinner tonight?", lol!  I just pray that we're setting him up to be one fabulous future daddy who feeds his babies!!:)

Over and out, these two enjoyed some walkie talkie chat time. Miller was learning all the lingo and phrases to go along with his new toy. We've already had a blast giving the other end to Miller's friend Grant across the street. These two call eachother from the front window waving wildly with silly messages. They enjoyed their own version of cell phones to communicate with. If only texting was an option...
More Christmas merriment to come...stay tuned!