It's Christmas! - Part I

We had an early wake-up call Christmas morning, courtesy of Tyler Andrew. Our little mister was so excited that he came quietly into our room at 6:04, walked over to my side of the bed as he usually does, and whispered, "Mommy, it's Christmas! Us get to open presents!"

My groggy response was, "Yes, it is Christmas, but it's still dark outside, so it's not time to wake up yet."

By this point, Tim was already out of bed, picking up Tyler to take him back to his bed. Thankfully, we all fell back asleep fairly quickly, but it was Tyler who woke us up yet again at 7:40. This time, he woke up his brother, too, because I told him we couldn't open presents until Nathan was awake. Tyler's solution: talk loudly right outside their bedroom door.

We all walked downstairs together and when Tyler saw the mound of presents that had appeared overnight, he exclaimed, "Wow! Dare's yots!" (Translation: "Wow! There's lots!") As we assembled the pile the evening before, pulling out wrapped boxes that had been hidden all over the house, Tim and I realized how ridiculous the collection seemed for a family of only four (plus one furry family member). The thing is, so many kids' toys are just big in size and come in packaging that is oversized, cumbersome, and seemingly iron-clad when it comes to releasing the actual product. Plus, in the mix we also had all the presents from Grandma and Grandpapa Surface and the Yanskeys.

After trying to feed Nathan a little bit of breakfast to sustain him during the chaos that was about to ensue, we read the Christmas story from Tyler's Beginner's Bible, once again trying to remind Tyler about the true meaning of Christmas. Not sure it worked, but we'll keep at it as the boys get older.

As predicted, Tyler went crazy over every present he received. He wanted to play with each gift after unwrapping it, and we had to remind him that there were so many more to open. Nathan was content to play with a set of balls that were in his stocking the entire time. He seemed to enjoy just watching PJ, who went bonkers over his new squeaky toy, and Tyler, who was all over the place and got to help open Nathan's presents, too.

The best reaction from Tyler was when he finally received the green garbage truck he has been wanting since September. This was the one thing he said he wanted for Christmas, so when he was still pulling off the wrapping paper he said, "It's a geen garbage tuck! Me want dis! Me want dis geen garbage tuck!"

Nathan's favorite toy is the Sing-along Stage we got for him. Once we helped it escape from it's packaging, he sat there and played in front of it for almost 20 minutes. Tyler loves it, too, because it plays music that makes him want to dance.

The sing-along stage could also be called the dance-along stage.

PJ thinks there's a perfect napping spot in the middle of the train tracks.

Once we opened all the gifts and ate breakfast (baked blueberry french toast and a bacon and egg casserole), Tim and I basically spent the rest of the morning taking toys out of boxes and setting up Tyler's new wooden train tracks. We were exhausted by the time Tyler went down for his nap, and so was he. For the first time in a long time, he fell right to sleep at naptime. 'Twas a Christmas miracle indeed!