Christmas Morning

 Our Christmas morning wasn't quite as merry as previous years. Samuel was acting a little strange the evening of Christmas Eve. He just went to bed and said he was really tired. Nathan had been sick the week before, so I was a little suspicious, and sure enough he woke up feeling pretty awful on Christmas morning. Had I known that he was sick, I wouldn't have let Nathan wake everyone up at 6:00am. They were all sound asleep at 5:45 until Nathan's alarm went off at 5:55, ha!

I gave Sam some Tylenol hoping it would perk him up, but he definitely had a lousy morning. Poor Kid! I felt so bad for him.

His poor little sick smile. 

Even though he was feeling sick, he told us he wanted us to continue with our plans, so we started with stockings. 

There aren't any big surprises in their stockings- underwear, socks, and candy are standard. They also all got a watch and some sort of card game or book.

The kids filled stockings for Matt and me this year. They got me a notepad, pens, chocolate, and fuzzy socks. 

Matt got new Roku remotes, a sunglasses strap, new headlamps, and a wallet. 

Then we moved on to gifts. Samuel went first, but after his first present, he needed a break. 

Elisabeth asked for a new tablet and bluetooth keyboard. She was thrilled. 

She also got a new basketball and a craft kit.

Nathan was the toughest kid to buy for this year. We got him a Steam gift card to buy a new computer game, a roller coaster book, a new Bible, and a zip string. 

Katherine hit the jackpot with presents. She didn't receive anything especially big, so she got several smaller things: Barbies, "sports" clothes, a new board game, books, a science kit, and a penguin squishmallow. 

I spotted the penguin stuffed animal at WinCo, and sent Nathan on a secret mission to purchase it and take it out to the car without her knowing. Big kids sure are helpful!

Matt gifted me a beautiful necklace

And we gave him a digital picture frame for his office and a new jacket. 

Finally, Sam's meds kicked in enough that he asked to open the rest of his presents. The very first thing he opened was the new CatKid Comic Club book. He immediately read the entire thing before opening the next gift, ha!

He also received a wood carving kit, a bionic hand nerf launch kit, and a proejctor. 

Nathan tested out his zip string while I cooked breakfast. 

We enjoyed our traditional homemade waffle and bacon breakfast. We also promised Samuel a redo Christmas breakfast as soon as he was feeling better. 

After breakfast, we opened the final gifts under the tree which were a series of clues leading to hidden presents/more clues. 

When the kids solved their first puzzle, they found the location of a gift. When they opened that gift, they found....a passport! We had been teasing the kids for weeks that all they were receiving for Christmas were passports for our upcoming cruise. Four passports are not cheap! They just blew us off, so when they opened those after all their work solving puzzles, their reactions were pretty funny. 

But the passports also held more puzzles to solve for a final reveal. 

Poor Samuel was pretty much out of commission for the puzzle solving, which led to some frustrations all around since the puzzles were too difficult for only three siblings. Samuel is our puzzle master. 

He did try his best to solve the Sudoku, but he brain was not firing at full capacity. 

Math and puzzles on Christmas morning, doesn't that just scream homeschool family, ha!

Finally after a group effort and some parental hints, they were able to solve all the puzzles. 

The final surprises were descriptions of the three shore excursions we chose for our upcoming cruise in the Spring. 

The favorite was sloth hugs and ziplining! We can't wait for May! Experience gifts are better than toys any day (and our kids still received tons of toys too!)

They also opened one last joint gift- a new sled. We're hoping to get to use it this winter!

We spent the morning playing with the new gifts. We played Katherine's Juicy Fruits game, opened and assembled all the things and got ready for the rest of the day. Even with a sick boy, we sure treasured the memories and traditions that make Christmas morning such a special day.