Our kids are probably the only ones that slept in past 9am on Christmas morning. We were so very grateful for the extra slumber time! Once they were up, we gathered them at the stairs and sent in one at a time to discover their loot from Santa. What followed was a couple of hours of pure merriment all around. Santa did very well this year.
Then, after enjoying a sweet Christmas morning breakfast, we reentered the living and dining room to open the remainder of the presents. Ephram had a great time helping Andy sort out the presents. We follow another Boyce family tradition for present opening, the presents are opened one person at a time - from the youngest to the oldest.
Macie was first. She had a great big pile of presents all to herself, and seemed a little bit overwhelmed at first. But she warmed right up. She had so much fun with the wrapping paper and bows. And Ephram was more than willing to step in and help as needed. Macie made it through about 2/3 of her presents before she started to meltdown, and we saved the rest for later in the day. She really loved two dresses from my mom. It was cute to see her marvel at them. She was also really excited about a Giraffe Ball Spinner and a set of house blocks from Skip Hop Jump.
Next up: Ephram. He had a big stack of presents too, and it was clear that he was going to have no problem tackling every last one. He gleefully ripped through present after present, dutifully pausing when I quickly inserted, "Wait! We have to see who that one is from!" He was excited about everything, but right off the bat his early favorites seemed to be a VTech Dinosaur car from his Grandpa Kovar, and a set of percussion instruments from his Grandma and Grandpa Boyce. He was beyond excited for his first pair of slippers - Mickey Mouse styled - from mom and dad. He also opened a package of mini marshmallows from me to all of the boys. While Andy and Charlie were a little confused by this, Ephram was hooting and hollering. He loves marshmallows.
Then it was Charlie's turn. I thought that he was going to jump out of his skin if he had to wait any longer. He started bouncing when he saw the huge Star Wars Lego box from his mom and dad. We told him that Santa had asked us to cover the Legos because he had asked for so much. I had managed a surprise that Andy didn't know about, but started to guess on when Charlie opened his very own marshmallow gun. Charlie was very animated about it. And then he unwrapped a marshmallow target that was from me to both him and Andy. Charlie was also excited about a set of Snap Circuits from his Grandma and Grandpa Boyce and some more art supplies.
With the kids' presents all unwrapped, (except for the remainder of Macie's,) we moved on to Andy. I had a few surprises for him. He always gets me really nice things, and I usually have a hard time thinking of equal presents for him. This year I sat and really thought about what he would enjoy and had a fun time coming up with answers. I think everything was a hit. Especially the balancing beans that I got for him off of Zulily, and the best of my marshmallow picks - a marshmallow bow. Andy also opened up a present that Charlie made for both of us at school. It was a super-cute Christmas ornament.
My turn comes last in our family, and I got everything that I wanted - including the movie Cinderella, some princess Legos to play with Macie and a new french oven.
We broke in the middle of present opening to enjoy a lunch of meat and cheese rolls, crackers, chips, fruit and rolls. After we were done opening, we just let the kids play. In past years we have doled out the presents slowly, but this year we let them open everything and eat all of their candy right off. We had so many toys set up in those two rooms, it could have been so overwhelming - but they really just enjoyed the playtime, hopping from one toy to the next.
After a dinner of leftovers and some more pie, we came back into the room to let Macie finish opening the rest of her presents. She had two of her biggest presents left - a little Fisher Price kitchen and a VTech sit to stand walker. These two things were probably the biggest hits of the day for her (and Ephram.) The kitchen has become our staple toy ever since.
It was a pretty perfect Christmas. One that I will remember in years to come.
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