Christmas Morning 2010

 Oh, the excitement of Christmas morning!  Cole came into our room very softly at about 7am and said "Is it time to go downstairs yet?"  I asked him to come snuggle for a few minutes as Charlotte and Brendan were still sleeping. We didn't have to wait too long though and then the excitement began. We looked out of the bedroom window to see if the reindeer food had been eaten and wonderfully, there were "rein"deer tracks all around where we had sprinkled the food.  Thank you local deer population for contributing to my children's magical day!!

After that, dare I say we made them wait while I put on my contacts and Brendan went downstairs to turn on the Christmas lights and get the video camera ready?! :)  We had put up the gate at the top of the stairs to prevent them from coming down during the night while we were setting the presents up so they waited their very eagerly and very patiently until Brendan said "ok!"

And then, oh, the yelling and smiles and laughter!  I can't wait to watch that all again on the movie. :)

 Charlotte is at the age where she is very into the princesses now (but more so loves Tinkerbell).  She is also still in the phase where she likes to undress her dolls and leave them naked. Humm. I convinced her to put Ariel's fins back on but we could not find her top. And we still can't find it and I'm hoping I didn't throw it out with the wrapping paper!

Tink's wings were unwrapped and left on for the entire day. She even wore them outside while playing over at my parents.   She loves Tinkerbell, as I said, and is very much looking forward to a Tink birthday party in January!  I call Tink "Tink a-link"sometimes (a play off of Snoop a-loop from Old School!) and she just thinks this is hilarious and repeats it in her little darling voice.

 I'll admit it. Cole and Charlotte get a lot of presents. We spoil them (only at Christmas), their grandparents spoil them, and they also get awesome gifts from aunts, uncles, and cousins.  So, we really wanted them to understand the importance of giving too this year.  They made gifts for their grandparents, Jay, and Kerry and they also picked out gifts for one another (less than $10).  I know, they didn't really need another toy but it was the thought that we were trying to convey. They had a lot of fun picking out a gift for one another; Cole picked out a Tinkerbell lantern for Charlotte and Charlotte picked out a Tron figure for Cole.  Charlotte's unprompted response to Cole: "Thank you Cole-ee!!"  I love that she used my nickname for him when thanking him!

In the past 2 months or so we have let Cole watch Phineus and Ferb on Saturday mornings so he was ecstatic to get the shirt. Santa is cool like that. Mommy would never have picked out a character shirt for Cole to wear. :)

The one thing that Cole has asked for this year besides a Sing-amajig was the Joker cave. We asked him why he wanted this because he doesn't play with his Batman cave all that often but his response was that he needed the bad guy's place to play with it all together.  Hummm...

There is a little story behind this hockey set: Lisa and I went to a craft fair in November and I hemmed and hawed over buying this because of its price and I wasn't sure if Cole would play with it (Apparently I forgot who my son was for a moment).  Lisa convinced me to purchase it and I put it into the back of my car. Cole was playing in the car that afternoon and looked in the back and saw it. Ahhh!  He excitedly asked what it was and I hastily said that it was broken and had to be thrown away.  Cole, unfazed by my horrible lying, didn't think of it again and Brendan then told me I ruined Christmas because Cole saw the gift.  I just told him it would be from us and not Santa.  Problem solved.  

So here we are Christmas morning and the gifts that I purchased at the craft fair which are beautifully made, were given out and Cole and Charlotte LOVED them.  

 Brendan and I made a pact to not buy each other gifts this year.  I couldn't hold myself to that pact. :) I surprised Brendan with a gift. And when I mean surprised, he really was which was the first time in about 10 years that he was surprised. He was happy which made me happy.  And that was my gift.  Haha, not really, because my master plan is to save my pennies and buy a new camera by the end of Q1 next year!

The other story behind the gift is that Brendan and Cole were wrapping Charlotte's gift Christmas Eve day and Cole asked Brendan what he got me for a gift. Brendan told him that we weren't exchanging gifts. And then Cole said, "Well, Mommy got you something."  Five year olds can't be trusted with secrets!! At least  he didn't tell him what it was. haha!

We had a couple hours of play time before heading over to my parents.

Reason #1 why I'll never be on Food Network:  I am CRAZY messy when I cook. I don't even remember HOW I got sugar on the oven dials.   To my defense I was trying to rush to make the cinnamon rolls (from SCRATCH people!) when I should have made them the day before.  They turned out heavenly though.  Cinnamon rolls with maple glaze. Um, hello? Can you say To Die For??!!!

Here's the recipe if ever want to gain 5 lbs. 

Cole deemed this "The Best Christmas Ever!!" and I have to agree.  It was wonderful!

Up next: Christmas afternoon at the Anderson's!