Christmas Morning

One of the true blessings of being able to celebrate Christmas at home is that we are never rushed by a clock, tick-tocking us to another scheduled event. We let the kids sleep for however long they want and then take our time opening gifts and enjoying the holiday as a family.

This morning Jeff and I awoke to the sounds of Justin playing in his room. Singing to himself and playing some version of Star Wars, we delighted in listening to him. Then around 8 Norah launched herself into our room and onto our bed to exclaim, "It's morning, it's Christmas! Did Santa come?" At which point we told her to go check and see. She raced out of our room, paused long enough to tell Justin to join her (apparently he forgot it was Christmas morning), and they hurried into the living room at light speed.

Within moments Norah was back in our room, eyes sparkling and face glowing as she held out a piece of paper to us and said, "Santa came and he left a NOTE!!!" I read aloud the note from Santa which praised their good behavior and thanked them for the cookies, then Jeff and I joined her as we went to inspect the goodies Santa left everyone. We discovered Justin still in the living room munching on orange tic-tacs from his stocking.

Jeff made coffee and started the fire, then we all sat down to open gifts, taking a few moments to remember why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. We took our time opening gifts, and asked the kids about them. Once we were finished Jeff and I opened up all the plastic boxes and released super heroes, villains and Barbies from their restraints. This took a great deal of effort on our part and we were never fast enough to satisfy Norah or Justin. They were never rude in their coaxing, but their efforts to help us proved to be a greater hindrance than the plastic twist ties!

Once the presents were opened and trash cleared away, we enjoyed a brief breakfast. Then Norah sat down and quietly started playing with her Barbies, Princesses and dolls. She drifted into her own imaginative world and was content to entertain herself. Justin decided to engage Jeff in a spirited (translation: wild and rambunctious) sword fight. Norah got smacked in the face several times as the two of them raced from one room to the next, yelling "Yo Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!", "En Guarde!" and "Touche!"

As the last sword fight came to an end and the dolls were done dancing at the ball, we dressed and headed over to the apartment for lunch, and more present opening.