As expected, Christmas morning started EARLY! We told Nathan that he couldn't get up before 6:00am, but I naively thought that he'd sleep later. Nope! He said he'd been awake since 5:00 watching the clock until he could get up and wake up everyone else, ha! We joke about hating to get up so early, but really I love how excited he is about Christmas. I know he'll always remember these early, special mornings- I will too. So at 6:01am, this was the scene in my bedroom :)
The kids opened their stockings first. They mostly get useful things in their stockings- bandaids, underwear, and toothbrushes but also their favorite candy and one or two small toys.
Then they started on the gifts under the tree. They had one joint gift which they opened together first- it was a photo book from our Disney World vacation. They'd been asking for one for months, and I finally had the time to make it and decided to keep it for a Christmas surprise.
The next half hour was spent ripping open packages, oohing and awwing and occasionally some happy screams. I love the magic of Christmas morning. This year especially was fun, because Katherine is old enough now to really get the joy of opening presents. She couldn't wait to open more and was always so excited about her gifts.
I had also wrapped several puzzle pieces for the kids to open for our BIG Christmas surprise. I thought they might be confused or a little disappointed to open them, but they were excited to have a mystery to solve.
Katherine's wrapped presents from us this year were play makeup, unicorn purse, Frozen jewelery, and bug catching puzzle.
Elisabeth's wrapped presents from us were a rice sensory bin and a nail stamping set.
Nathan's wrapped presents from us were a Star Wars Lego set and a Snap circuits/Lego kit
Samuel's wrapped presents from us were Mario Maker 2 Switch game and a remote control car that drives on walls.
After they finished opening the presents under the tree, they worked on assembling the puzzle, but they were still missing six pieces... hmmm... So they went on a search for the missing pieces.
Their search led them upstairs to another big surprise for the girls.
The kids were all pretty distracted with finding those missing pieces to enjoy the playhouse, but Katherine jumped right in and started playing. She and Elisabeth always play in those houses at any store that displays them, so I was excited to get them one for Christmas- my one requirement was that it had a doorbell since that's Katherine's favorite part :)
The big kids ran straight downstairs to finish their puzzle and figure out their Christmas surprise.
It took the kids a little while to figure out where to look, but after a little nudge from Dad, they headed to the backyard for a giant surprise!
The kids have asked for a trampoline for years. They are their favorite toys at their friends' houses, but Matt has always said no for a variety of reasons- price, injuries, yard issues, but I guess the five of us finally wore him down and he agreed this year. The kids were shocked since they always assumed we'd never have one. It was such a fun surprise and one of my all time favorite Christmas memories. There's nothing like the magic and excitement of Christmas through a child's eyes.
They jumped for a little bit and decided to come inside and warm up for a bit and play with their other new toys while I cooked breakfast.
Being in the kitchen cooking a special breakfast and seeing the joy of all of them playing with their new toys is one of my favorite parts of Christmas morning.
We had our traditional Christmas morning waffles.
After breakfast, Matt cleaned up the kitchen and I took my turn playing with all the new toys. The girls painted their nails with Elisabeth's new nail art kit.
And the boys tried out Mario Maker 2.
Elisabeth and I also played her new game Spot It.
When the sun came up, the kids were back outside on the trampoline, and Matt spent most of the morning finishing assembling it.
Then we got ready and headed over to my parents that afternoon for more Christmas fun!
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