Christmas Day

A belated documentation of our Christmas morning.

Natalie woke up first and enjoyed some youtube videos in Micah and my bed until Angela was up.

Then, Daddy carried them down to see if Santa visited us!

We checked out a few special presents from Santa first thing. We chose to open the biggest box, which was a bike trailer for the girls to ride in!

So much candy for breakfast!

We took our time and opened gifts at a leisurely pace- open a gift, play a bit, open another gift, etc. It was nice having nowhere to be and no one expecting us. Also, no reason to shower and get dressed. So, Christmas morning lasted well past lunchtime!

Grandpa's turtle racer gift was a big hit with Natalie

Angela tries to figure it out, until Daddy takes off with it

 Daddy gives a quick physics lesson as he opens his gift from my Dad

 A room full of brand new toys, playing with a box

This was to document Natalie's naughty act- she stole the half-opened toblerone from Micah's stocking and ate off only the tips

after naptime, we decided to go for a bike ride. Angela didn't like it at first, but got some candy to convince her to like it.

We rode to a pretty park a few miles from our home right across hwy 1 on the Indian River lagoon

Was this girl MADE for beach life, or what?

Thanks for the new swimsuits, grandma!

This inexpensive, afterthought to get free shipping on another amazon order ended up being a great gift- a set of magnifying glasses. Dad took her outside to burn ants and burn holes through dried leaves on the back porch while Angela napped.

Micah got a few books to work on his piano skills

We did an effortless dinner- glazed ham and baked potatoes- then Natalie and I got all the blankets and pillows in the house and slept under the tree, falling asleep to Christmas music. It was pretty magical. 

 We were grateful to have a chance to relax and laze around the house and enjoy spending time together. Thanks to all of our friends and family who sent us thoughtful and exciting gifts!

PreChristmas

 By Christmastime, I finally figured out a holiday treat that Natalie is capable of really helping me make without me going crazy: rolo pretzels. She could unwrap the rolos and set them each on a pretzel, then I baked them and pressed on the top pretzel.

We made pretty good cookie plates this year: sugar cookies, ginger chews, snickerdoodles, pb chocolate no bakes, banana bread, rice krispie treats with mini m&m topping and oatmeal cookies with cranberries and while chocolate. We took some around to our neighbors and it was a good way to introduce ourselves. We have some interesting folks across the road- one guy is an italian exhibitionist with lots of guns and the other is a born-again Christian who told us that all muslims are evil. There is a family two doors down with a three-year-old daughter, so hopefully we'll get to know them better.

 And, it wouldn't be Christmas without LeAnn's shrimp dip at least once.

The weekend before Christmas we got to watch our next-door-neighbor's chickens while he was out f town. I took the girls over to throw them bread almost every day and they loved it. Natalie tried to become one of them.

They were molting, so we didn't get too many eggs, but we enjoyed the few that we did find!

Temperatures have continued to be in the 80's, hotter than normal even for here. So, we went to the beach on Christmas eve.

Then we came home and got into our Christmas jammies

Opened a package from Aunt Marian with an ornament to remember our Uncle Joe who passed away this year

We read the story of Christ's birth and got out each figurine to our new nativity set as we told the story. I think it would make a fun tradition to do this every Christmas eve and collect more and more nativity sets over the years.

Then, the girls each helped themselves to a cookie and set out the rest for Santa