Christmas Day 2009

Christmas morning was so fun in the Eads household! We got up about 7:30am and started the process of waking Lily up. We needed to get an early start to Mimi's, so I pushed the wake up call a bit, but she was in a good mood despite being woke up. Her little face when she came downstairs was priceless. Lily had a case of the toy ADD. When she walked in the room she didn't know what toy to play with first!

Santa brought her a clubhouse and a Sesame Street kitchen. She loved both! Mommy and Daddy bought her puzzles and books and a broom set so she can help Mommy with the chores with a more appropriate sized broom vs. her stealing mine and knocking everything down.

Mommy and Lily opening her puzzles.

She loves these block puzzles, especially the animal ones. We name the animals and the sounds. She is getting really good at recognizing shapes and where they go. And she knows most of the everyday animals now too. She has got the lion roar down!

Daddy got two big gifts. A 32 inch LCD for our bedroom and a TomTom. Funny story: Michael actually wrapped the TomTom himself. Payback for me having to stay up all night at Walmart to get the TV and the TomTom. I saw a women get bit for that thing! Anything for deal. I got the TV for $250! Worth the wait, huh? The hard part was hiding the gift until Christmas. My secret hiding spot? The bath tub! He never uses the shower in our guest bathroom so it wasn't hard to shut the curtain and let it be. Because even if he used the bathroom he wouldn't have seen it. I am the smartest woman in the world...feel free to steal that idea.

Lily insisted on taking all presents in the house to play with them. This was a good sign that she liked Santa's gift.

In and out that was the game of the morning. She was so inthralled by the house and kitchen, Michael and I were free to open our gifts in peace. I got a beautiful scarf, a flip camcorder and tripod, some more of my nativity set and a camera bag for my SLR.

The clubhouse comes with a funny story! Luckily Santa's elves were smart enough to not screw on the roof because it would not fit through the doorway or up the stairs to the playroom with it on. It took some finagling to get it up there. The thing is super light so that made it easier. I will show some pictures of the new playroom set up in a future post.

After gifts we ate a quick breakfast and got ready and packed to head to Mimi's and Paws for dinner and gifts with Michael's family. Dinner was so late we actually did gifts first because I thought Lily would start breaking down since she had a big morning.

Morgan liked her gifts! Apparently the new toboggan we got her was a hit and super soft! Lily has a matching one.

She was so cute, my beautiful niece!

Lily is getting to be quite skilled at this unwrapping stuff!

Uncle Kevin being super helpful...he probably just woke up.

Lily and Morgan got THE toy of the season of course. Not from me! Aunt Tanya stood in line many of mornings to get the girls ZhuZhu pets. I wasn't convinced this thing would make it one day in with our dog Cesna but he only got a hold of it once (so far!) All I know is I picked it up once and felt a little dog slobber.

Wayne and Lily. Notice her sleepy eyes? Momma knows best. The gifts probably wouldn't have went as well later in the night. She conked out not long after this.

The perfect end to a perfect night...Michael drinking a fake beer that contained underwear...from his Mom.

We put the girls to bed and Michael and I actually went and played Wii over at Dave and Jenna's house until the wee hours of the morning. It was a change and reminded me of the old Raleigh days before they moved away! SAD! But we had a lot of fun.

I have to say Christmas really was awesome. I swear as we get older Christmas just gets more and more stressful. But this year watching Lily so excited and interacting with Lyle and saying "HoHoHo" and dancing to Christmas Carols was just amazing. It reminded me how Christmas used to be as a child...fun and stress free. And I know Christmas is really about Jesus but it is also about Family. Even though it was just us three that morning it was a magical memory. I know it is only going to get better too. Because watching Christmas through a child's eyes reminds us of the innocence we lost with age. It is good to get that back...if only for a day.