Merry Christmas!!

 I sleep horribly on Christmas Eve. Usually, its because I'm up so late finishing up my job as Santa's Elf, but in the more recent years, its because I'm listening for the kids to wake up and so I wake up every hour through the night making sure I don't miss them sneaking out of bed. Surprisingly, they slept in until 7:30. We contained them upstairs while we got the camera ready. Lexi found her way into the playroom where the new kitchen was moved to, and I had to go looking for her after the boys came downstairs and she was nowhere to be seen.

We're still trying to marry the ways Marc and I grew up opening presents. In my family, we'd divide out the gifts and then take turns opening one present at a time and you got to pick what present you opened. In Marc's family, there is one person who gives out the presents to everyone one round at a time and they select what present you are going to open and then everyone opens their presents that round at the same time. This year, Marc handed everyone the present that they got to open and we took turns opening.

Santa brought Tyler a Pilot's hat and several toy airplanes. He was thrilled!

Lexi received a new baby doll from Santa, she named her Sophie.

Bryce was perplexed when he opened his gift from Santa. He asked for computer games, and I think he believed that he would be getting a computer with the games on it like the one at school that he uses. So when he opened this little present that had a CD case in it, he was really confused until we explained that it was the computer games. Then the confusion turned into joy and he got really excited. Silly boy!

Marc and I exchanged gifts for the first time in several years. The money just hasn't been there in the past, and we opted to spend it on the kids instead of each other. This year, we made a point of budgeting ourselves in, for the sheer purpose of being able to GIVE to one another, something we had really missed. I got Marc cold weather gear, mainly for when he rides his bike to work and the last 2 Harry Potter movies. He got me a new pair of pajama pants, a collage that he created from our San Francisco trip, and he fixed up my doll cradle that my Grandpa Casper had made me when I was a little girl.

We ate breakfast (normally I make a blueberry french toast casserole) but this year, we simplified it by making normal french toast and then I made the blueberry syrup from scratch, so it still felt like we were keeping the tradition :)

The kids had a few hours to play with their presents, and then we finalized the packing for Cincinnati, made some sack lunches, and drove to my parents so they could take us to the airport.

 The rest of the day was spent traveling to Cincinnati. The kids were awesome travelers! We managed to carry on all our luggage, the boys were troopers and hauled their own suitcases and backpacks. They managed to see both sets of grandparents in 2 different cities on Christmas Day. It was a great, LONG day!