Christmas 2013: Christmas Day

Once we got dressed and had breakfast at our house, we made our way over to my parents' house to celebrate with my parents, sister, and grandparents.  To get the kids to leave our house without complaint, I let them bring one present with them.

Usually we do a big family gathering on Christmas day, but this year our schedules clashed a bit and we postponed the big gathering 'til the weekend.  It was nice, though, to have a quiet little Christmas with my grandparents and really get to spend time with them.

First, we opened our stockings.  Santa visits the kids at my parents' house as well, and he brought them all sorts of goodies, including Thinking Putty ...

... and scratch-off lottery tickets.  Mollie was the big winner of the day ... she got $40 from hers!

After stockings came presents, and we decided to start with the ones Baylor had bought for my parents and sister at his school's Secret Santa Workshop.  He got my mom an adorable canvas with the lyrics to "Jingle Bells" on it.

Baylor was actually pretty excited about the gift he bought for my dad, even telling my mom a little about it a couple days prior.

He bought him little screwdrivers so they could do projects together!

He got my sister a mini mp3 player so she could listen to music.

Then the general gift opening commenced.  Mollie got a new doll from Aunt Christine.

Yup, it's an identical doll to the one she already has, Sally.  Lest you think my sister was being lazy, I will say that Mollie asked for this; I think she wanted to have twins, even though I'm not sure she understands exactly what that is.  Either way, the new doll, later named Cindy after Cindy Lou Who, was quickly welcomed to the family.

Baylor and Bryson both got books for Christmas and were virtually unavailable for quite a while as they poured over them.  Like father, like son!

Once the spell of the book had been broken, Baylor opened a set of Lincoln Logs from his great-grandparents and immediately set to work building a general store.

The kids had eaten a pretty small breakfast that morning, partially because they were so very excited about it being Christmas, so we made sure to get them lunch at a reasonable hour.  My parents had whipped up a couple awesome soups, and we all chowed down, taking a break from gift-opening for a short while.

Baylor finished his lunch quickly and requested some time with the Lego set his sister got for him, so we pulled it out and he set to work.

Once lunch was cleaned up and the Lego set was all assembled, we went back to gift-opening.  Mollie got an adorable ballerina outfit, shoes and tiara included!

Just look at my tiny dancer!

Of course, when she opened a hat, scarf, glove set from GG and Great-grandpa, she just had to add that to her ensemble!

The final gifts of the day were a pair of bikes for the kids!  They were super excited and were itching to try out their first bikes.  Unfortunately, I failed to bring tennis shoes with us, so they didn't try them out for very long; those spiky pedals, meant to keep their shoes from slipping off, were not overly comfortable in only socks.

After the bikes were tested out for a little while, we retreated back upstairs for more visiting.  Mollie got a hold of my camera and decided to take a few pictures.  "Say, 'cheese'!" she told everyone.

Then, when Great-Grandpa wouldn't "cheese" big enough, she made him try again.  That girl has some persuasive powers already.

Baylor, ever one to eschew socializing for Lego time, hunkered down to assemble one of his new sets.  Mollie decided to do a fun little photo bomb with her time.

And, of course, practice her budding ballerina skills.

After hopping and dancing around for a while, she sat down with Oma for some snuggles.

Aunt Christine, meanwhile, decided to help Baylor with his new set.

It certainly wasn't our typical Christmas day festivities, but we had a lot of fun and enjoyed a lot of together time.  And isn't that what Christmas is all about anyway?  Spending time with those you love?

What could be better?