our little man

12.26.2007

merry christmas!

phew. what a tiring couple of days! but we had such a great time - what a wonderful holiday. thanks to everyone who helped make it special for us and the kiddos.

we spent christmas eve dinner at my mom's house with her, jeff, my sisters, my grandparents, and cathy. it was a nice time and everyone was glad to be together, even though ben was a little over-tired and sophie was a little over-stimulated. it was just so much excitement!

we went home, and i nursed ben and got him right into bed while sophie and adam got santa's snack ready. we woke up early the next morning and got showered and dressed before they were up... sophie woke up just as we were finishing getting ready, but we actually had to wake ben up. i felt bad, but he was so happy to see us and got right in on the action. i think i would have felt worse if he'd missed out on some of the christmas morning festivities. ben went right to town playing with the little people castle and stocking goodies that santa had brought him. one of his most exciting gifts was a little toy cars cell phone that he got in his stocking. sophie has one just like it and ben always wants to play with it in the car. she does well to share with him sometimes, but of course she wants to use it, too. he was so excited to see that he had his very own! because we had started opening gifts early, we only had a few left under the tree, which worked out incredibly well. i was afraid we'd feel rushed, because we wanted to be at my mom's for a reasonably-timed breakfast, but we actually had plenty of time to finish opening gifts slowly and taking a few minutes each time to explore them a bit. once everything was opened up, we got the kids dressed and headed to grammy's house.

we had a really nice morning. our family just *loves* christmas and tends to go overboard, but we aren't too extravagant... just lost of smaller, thoughtful or fun things - so it takes awhile to open everything. it kind of feels like you've just finished an endurance challenge when you walk out of there, but it's so much fun. i always feel like a kid at christmas. ben started really showing how tired he was around 11:30 and my mom spent a lot of time walking around with him to keep him happy. it was just a lot for him to take in, and he was due for a nap. he got some really great things, though, and did well playing with them in the earlier part of the day. he got lots of bath toys (which were a huge hit at bath time today - he loves his baths), some very cute clothes, and lots of other little things.

we left there a little after noon and headed to adam's parents' house for dinner. unfortunately ben was way overdue for his nap, so he went to sleep almost as soon as we got there. we did have him open his gifts first, though, and he got a very cool set of blocks and vehicle bath squirters which he loves. he slept right through dinner, but i went and woke him up afterward so that he had a little bit of time to visit before we left.

christmas with kids is just so amazing. its incredible to watch things through their eyes. sophie is at the age where she really "got it" for the first time, and ben is at a point where any new toy is exciting for him. i can't believe how much fun we all had. holidays are going to be so much fun as they grow!

posted at 7:02 PM by aimee // 0 comments