Waking Up Christmas Morning

Before we were married, Brian and I agreed that Santa wouldn't visit our house.  Though I struggled with the decision at first, I'm so thankful we went this route instead.  We buy three gifts for each child in honor of the three gifts Jesus was given after his birth.  This makes Christmas morning much less stressful and much more meaningful in our home. 

For instance, we didn't have to stay up all night putting toys together and wrapping gifts.  We loaded the boys' stockings with what would fit in them, but mostly just laid out the gifts in the floor.  Daniel actually slept until 8:30, and hopefully in the future, he'll know that all the amazing gifts come from Mimi, Pa, and Aunt Ca so we can sleep a little bit later...  doubtful, I know.  Because, much to our surprise our small gifts seemed to be exactly what Daniel wanted!

The boys' stockings and their gifts

Daniel's three gifts:

Puppy Dog Pillow Pet,

Black and Decker took kit,

and a set of pajama sleepers

Samuel's three gifts:

Baby Einstein rattle book,

Baby Brother outfit with jeans,

and a set of pajama sleepers

(and the box is his 1st Christmas Ornament that we did later that day)

Want to know what Daniel went straight after?

The silly Pillow Pet!

I made so much fun of Brian for wanting to get Daniel this...

But, he was absolutely right.

My child loves this thing.

But, he loves his tool kit so much more.

He hammers and screwdrives everything in this house.

Even Samuel has needed some "fixing."

He was so sweet looking at each tool,

and he was doing his best to figure out how to use it.

Samuel woke up a little later...

He had gotten so many little toys the day before that he had no idea what to play with!

He opted for chewing on his fingers.