Christmas

Christmas with Willa was so fun this year! We had exhausted her the previous two nights from family parties and picking Ryan up from the airport, so Christmas morning she actually slept in until almost 8:30! We were all up an hour earlier, so we decided to break with tradition and eat Christmas breakfast before the presents. She woke up just in time to sit down at the table with us and I think she was a lot happier having food in her stomach while we opened gifts.

After we finished eating and cleaning up, we got ready to go in the living room. In my family, Santa doesn't wrap his gifts. In December, the gifts pile up under the tree from family and friends, but on Christmas morning Santa brings the toys and sets them up. We would run into the living room and play with the toys for quite a while before we actually moved on to opening presents. I actually think this is wise of Santa because he doesn't have to worry about different wrapping paper or anything like that. It might have made for a late Christmas Eve night at our house, however, when he had seven children's worth of toys and presents to assemble. Anyway, Willa had both some wrapped presents under the tree and some special Santa gifts that were set up and assembled for her. Ryan pointed her to look at the living room where the new toys were laid out and she said, "Ooooohhhhh!!!" and then starting running towards it. It was extremely, extremely adorable. She was very cute opening her gifts. One of my favorites was when she opened a small set of matchbox cars and shouted, "CARS!". She got probably three times more presents than she really needed. She was a little overwhelmed with all the new toys (and also had gotten a little hungry again) so we ended up opening the last of her gifts. That seemed like a better option than yelling at her to "Come open your presents!"

It was so fun to have Christmas with her at this age, and I can't wait for next year when she'll get the whole concept even more (and hopefully still be happy and compliant about what she receives). When we get back to Texas, I think I will take half of her toys and stash them in the attic for a few months - maybe they will be a nice surprise when the baby comes.