Our Merry Little Christmas Day

One of my favorite Christmas moments each year is turning on the Christmas tree lights in the early morning and seeing all the gifts set up before the kids come downstairs.  I love to imagine their excitement and can't wait to see their faces when they know for sure that Santa had come to our house!

Fielder was up first and I ended up having to wake Claire up!  Mimi and Papa arrived just in time to see them come downstairs.

We found that Santa had left only a crumb from his cookies and he had hung the magic key up on our new Nutcracker from Elfie.

Stockings were first of course and Santa came through on Fielders biggest wish - a candy cane!  (He ate it in about 30 seconds.)

Claire was thrilled with her nutcracker ornament.

Then they opened their gifts from us.  Fielder got pretend money, a piggy bank, a spiderman "mallet" - thanks Daddy - and a stuffed caterpillar.  He's slept with that caterpillar every night since!

Claire got jewelry and cowgirl boots.  Here she is striking a "cowgirl pose."

Santa brought lots of wonderful things.  Sleds for both kids - we're hoping he'll send a little snow our way too!

Claire got Barbies, a Barbie car, and a new scooter.

 Fielder got a tool set, a binoculars and telescope set, and a light up "microphone."  (He immediately chomped the binoculars and broke them and not much later broke the telescope.  The microphone only lasted a couple days and it's broken now too.  The kid is nothing if not rough.)

 Another favorite moment of the day is watching Claire while we open our gifts from her.  We both took her shopping and she used her own money to buy us gifts.  She got Daddy new sunglasses and candle holders with red candles for me.  She was SO excited to watch us open them!

 I fixed a nice brunch for everyone and the rest of the day was truly relaxing!  We were able to play outside and test out the new scooter.  We even went back out to play after naptime and rode bikes more with our neighbors who very generously gave us a hand-me-down bike for Fielder.  We had a very merry day!  Thanks Mom and Dad for joining us.  (The kids loved having them there, especially to climb all over Papa and try to keep him from getting a nice nap!)