Christmas Fun 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas morning with the kiddos this year! In the weeks prior, we had begun quizzing Josiah as to the real meaning of Christmas and he was able to tell us several times today "why" we were celebrating, which was a nice touch to the day for sure! Later in the day, they were all sitting at the table playing with their toys and we got some really fun shots of them having a lot of fun together.

Also later in the day, it was very quiet out in the living room and David and I suspected the worst, but came in to discover them sitting here as pictured quietly watching one of the new Veggie Tales movies that Grandma & Grandpa Carpenter sent. Josiah was also sharing his new Leapster 2 with Daniel who was THRILLED to be given the chance to check it out. Josiah in general was very good with the twins and played with them sharing the toys all throughout the day pretty well. We had a couple of run-ins with the "no sharing" bug, but he quickly got the clue that not sharing was not allowed!

Here Josiah is opening his Bumblebee transformer toy, which the adults of the family found to be impossible to transform, though it is supposed to be easy enough for a 5-year-old to operate. Ummm...not so much! It was very difficult to make it change form, so I have the feeling this will remain a robot most of the time.

Caleb is looking at one of his new "Cars" board books that we got for the twins. He is giving his precious Caleb look as well. Caleb's response to the day was not super different from his normal mode of operation. At one point though, I caught him on video dancing wildly to some Christmas music, which was fun to watch!

Daniel is checking out his new carrot racecar that we got for him. This year we didn't get too many presents for the boys, as they are satisfied with just a few things. They seemed to enjoy the toys they did receive however! Daniel's reaction to the day was one of lots of curiousity and bouts of clingy-ness to Mommy. I think he was tired as neither Caleb or Daniel had as long a nap as they usually do, so I am sure that contributed to his clingy mood. He enjoyed playing with the new toys though and some old stand-bys as well.

The most popular gift for the twins were these stocking stuffers that I picked up for them. They are those multiple "pin" toys where you can put your hand underneath and the pins push up to make the shape of your hand or whatever you put in the pins. They were fascinated with seeing how this worked and came back to them again and again throughout the day.

Daddy is helping Josiah build his Star Wars spaceship. Josiah had been asking for a Star Wars Lego set for some time now and this was his first set to try out. Josiah was a big helper for Daddy finding pieces that they needed to build it.

Josiah's most favorite toy that he continued to play with all day was his new Leapster 2 game system. We call it his "own computer" and that was very popular with him! Daddy is showing Josiah how to play here and Daniel is looking on longingly at the "puter," as he would love to have one too I am sure!

This is a fun shot of Daniel laughing at the cars rolling on the table and Caleb looking on unamused. The boys enjoyed playing with their new matchbox cars on the table rolling them back and forth to Mommy and Daddy.

After all the gifts were opened (done by 6:15am), I set out to making us a nice breakfast complete with scrambled eggs with cheese, blueberry pancakes, and maple sausage. Josiah ate all of his blueberry pancakes, Daniel's favorite was the "me" (meat) and Caleb scarfed down everything put in front of him. And as another special meal, David cooked us a fabulous dinner including ham, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. Daniel proceeded to rub the mashed potatoes in his hair, which was the second episode of this hair tonic treatment today (earlier he put yogurt in his hair). I was told that as a child when I didn't like something I would dump it on my head (my un-fave was pudding), so what goes around comes around I suppose! Josiah tried all the food, but liked the mashed potatoes the best. Daniel did love the "me" though again (in this case the ham) and again Caleb chowed down on all of it, but as the classic mimicker he had to rub a little of the mashed potatoes in his hair before I stopped him from doing it further.

Overall, it was a fun-filled day and we enjoyed playing with the kiddos and seeing their joy as well. Josiah still has a bit of a cold and we may take him in to the doctor tomorrow as I suspect he has a sinus infection, but we will see how he is feeling tomorrow. We have lots of fun Christmas memories to look back on and are very thankful for God's greatest gift to us, the birth of His Son! Happy Birthday Jesus!