more christmas

There's so much about this Christmas that I want to remember. The events, family time, our advent tree, teachable moments with Miller, the magic, and gift giving memories will be forever cherished. Our Christmas festivities stretched out over most of the day on the 25th. I really liked it this way. Our Christmas Day dinner took place before our gift exchange and this schedule was just perfect for our family. In true Grandmama fashion, the tablescape was beautiful. She always takes extra care to make the spread beautiful for her guests.

Eating lunch first took out the rush of gift giving to get the food on the table. We had a wonderful late lunch. Grandmama likes to have a conversation starter question on family gatherings. It was interesting to share and listen to everyone's favorite Christmas memory. We should have written them down for future Christmases'. My favorite story was Poppy's tale of Great Grandpa Ralph's Christmas Tree bargaining pitch a few days before Christmas. Then purchasing a Charlie Brown Christmas tree only to drill  holes in the trunk in order to fill in the gaps with real branches. It was a pre-artificial tree of sorts. Stories like these make the dinner conversation rich with family memories. There's just something about this time of year that makes you reflect on your own childhood.

We're hoping to create these rich memories with our kids. I'm sure Christmas dinner stories will be told about our family one day.

Eliza Kate squeezed in a quick high chair meal before her afternoon nap. This two nap a day deal makes her miss out on a lot of fun happenings. She's one happy camper if she's on her schedule though. We try not to mess it up!

Of course, there was lots of appetizer sampling out of her high chair. This girl loves to eat, especially a snack. She wants whatever is on the other person's plate like she is missing out on something special.

Ipad App games with your uncle is a great way to be entertained on Christmas Day. Uncle Clay downloaded Critteroos especially for Miller. Belly laughing and contagious giggling rang throughout the whole house as Miller was mixing up animal heads and bodies. He was very entertained.

Poppy plays a "Nice, Nice Grandmama" game with Eliza Kate...the same exact silly game that Miller loved. It envolves stroking the cheeks of Grandmama and then at the very last second chanting "Bad, bad Grandmama" with a little swat. She just loves it.

What's a family gathering without a little roughousing from your uncle? Miller and Uncle Clay are one of a kind. They are both playful & love horsing around. Cut from the same fun loving mold...Miller is so blessed to have such a FUN uncle around. They both have a lot of bottled up energy and bring so much life to any family gathering.

We finally made our way downstairs....gathered round' the kid's tree and kicked off the unwrapping session. We felt richly blessed to have both sets of grandparent's in the same room. Miller was the unofficial unwrapper. He likes to  lend a hand when a recipient goes too slowly:) After all, he's smart enough to figure out that the faster you open your gift his turn comes around more quickly.  In my family growing up, we each took turns opening the gifts. Each person gets the spotlight and all the attention goes to appreciate the gift. We've continued this tradition in our family.  I think it helps Miller focus on the art of gratitude. We're trying, at least to teach him the art of gratitiude. Another benefit is streeeeetching out the experience a little longer.

We saved our adult exchange for the afternoon unwrapping session. It's more fun when there's a crowd to participate with. We chose gifts for Omi and Papa's kitchen this year. They love to cook and entertain, so it was a well appreciated theme.

Waiting your turn through seven adults is not always easy. Miller was a champ and kept asking ,"Is it my turn?" Near the end, his unopened gifts far outlasted ours. Then all the attention went to his stash of gifts.The blur of his paper tearing shows the speed with which he tore the paper. It warmed my heart to see his heart-felt joy. I loved watching him jump up and hug Uncle Clay with thankfulness.

The Art of Christmas book with matching Lion was a such a meaningful gift. I love dated hand written notes from Grandparents inside books. It's a keepsake to reflect on for years to come. I adore seeing my own grandmother Eliza's handwritten notes to my mom even though I've never met her. It's a timeless, cherished connection.

Landon opened one of his announced gifts...ugh! What's a busy mom to do during December other than tote my blabber mouth along on shopping adventures...ha! Miller proudly announced "It's your table grill, Dad" as Landon searched for the edges to unwrap. He just can't keep an exciting secret yet. It made us all giggle though. He's a mess!

 Now these next two pictures could be a blog post all on their own. When we decided in mid November that we wanted to purchase a LeapPad learning tablet for Miller, I had no idea that it was the "hot toy" of the year. I was relaxed and didn't know that there would be such a Christmas demand that Leapfrog wouldn't be able to keep up with production before December. I waited for a "hot deal" on Black Friday. I woke up around 12:00 am on Thanksgiving evening in Knoxville to land a great cyber deal. To my shock, Best Buy was out of stock online and only had 5-10 in each store for the swarms  of customers in line. By the time I went back to Leapfrog.com, my trusty back up plan fell through. All of their 165.00 bundles were sold out. For two weeks, I checked Walmart.com, Target, Amazon for the LeapPad, but the only option was pink.Or, the two green that came in sold out within minutes. No such luck.

To my surprise in mid December, our local Target got three in stock. At 8:15 am, only 15 minutes after opening I called and they had just sold the last green pad..ugh! My wild goose chase led me on all kinds of internet seaches & leads. I was more than frustrated, but Landon kept encouraging me to hold out and not pay an  inflated convenience charge of 100.00 on the Amazon models. Even Poppy was on the search for us.

 I happened upon our local Walmart one evening in early December purchasing batteries and struck up a conversation with the electronics sales clerk. I casually told him my dilemma and asked him when the trucks rolled in for deliveries each week .Yes, I even considered stalking the midnight delivery crew. He took down my name and number to put me on the store's waiting list...waiting list? Who knew those existed?  Needless to say, I didn't put much faith in my name going anywhere considering he placed it inside his lapel pocket on a piece of scratch paper.  Then we got an early morning wake up call.Two weeks before Christmas at 7:30 am, Walmart called and told me our LeapPad had arrived and I had 30 minutes to pick it up. Our toy drama had ended...on a happy note! We didn't pay an obscene amount of money, but I sure did make up for it with some of my precious time. Thankful for the ability to present Miller with such a special gift.

Miller is my cheerleader when opening gifts. We needed new glasses. Even my little man gets excited over the most boring of gifts in his little world.

PJ's for Bitty. She's all accessorized and ready to be played with. Now I'm on the hunt for matching Christmas jammies for Eliza Kate.

Nothing better than an evening stroll with your dolly. She is loving playing the part of little mommy.

We ended the evening with a Christmas Orange Marmalade Cake. We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and blew out the candles to refocus the attention back unto Him. I'm hoping our kids will understand the joy of anticipating opening gifts is similar to what Mary felt anticipating Jesus' birth.  And, then when He was born and the world was there to worship & adore Him.... everyone experienced the same joy that she carried for 9  months. Santa is fun...but Jesus is the greatest GIFT of all! Merry Christmas!