Christmas time is here! Maddie - in all her years - has never, ever gotten up before us on Christmas morning. This cracks me up because it goes against all conventional ideas about kids and Christmas, bursting forth from their bedrooms and bounding down the stairs and diving head-first into a pile of presents. But not Maddie. In fact, this morning, we played the soundtrack of "The Polar Express" on the television, and nearly got to the end of it before we heard that door crack open upstairs. Peeking over the balcony up top, she saw all the presents down below, and gave everyone a happy, "Merry Christmas!"
Mom had her cinnamon doughnuts ready, but there were all kinds of other treats too, including our Christmas cookies of course.
The stockings were filled, and these were the first we went through, each of us sitting at the couch and going through our gifts and treasures.
The Wise Men look on, the first gift givers. We watched "The Nativity Story" today, such a great movie about the real reason behind the Christmas season.
Not so much this gnome nutcracker. But he looks fun. I was taking pictures of various decorations this morning while waiting for Maddie to arise from her slumber. The gnome is perched atop Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad Trilogy for a reason, of course.
Our Nativity empire - Zechariah emerging from the temple, speechless. And a nearby Roman soldier, helping to enforce the command from Caesar that all the world should be taxed.
A candle display with the Holy Family sits by the front door, a remarkable moment. What these parents must have been thinking at that moment!
First thing this morning, we had Nana call over to England to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. They were there and happy to receive the call. Christmas wishes were shared across the pond as Nana paced about with the phone attached to her ear.
One of my favorite Nativity scenes. I love the retro stained glass behind the pieces. This is also near the front door, greeting visitors as they enter, or visible as coming down the stairs.
Ah, Santa's cookie, a bite clearly taken from it, obvious evidence of Santa's presence in our house. These cookies don't eat themselves, folks!
One of the smaller sets we have sits on one of our shelves, a collection of characters from "Mickey's A Christmas Carol." A few of our Christmas cards we've received serve as backdrops, along with a smaller copy of "A Christmas Carol," of course.
And here on the opposite side are some pictures of Maddie with Santa, plus our own Gävle Goat. This one is safe from fires here inside our house. You can also see to the right our collection of Christmas glasses. Look through these and at the tree, and you'll see all sorts of designs and illuminated shapes within every Christmas light.
Here is Maddie's first picture with Santa. I remember this moment, as does Mom. It brings back happy memories of our uncertainty about her being with Santa. We weren't ready for a picture - we were just walking by the him at the Mall of Georgia, and sure enough she wanted to go run up and take a picture with him. And she was clearly pretty happy about it all too. If we had known, we would have dressed her up for Christmas, but at the same time, this picture tells a story greater than any of that.
Now look at her, thirteen years later. She had a good Christmas, she told us, and we were glad of that. You can see just a few of the items she was opening here, Marvel related, of course.
Nana had more than a few gifts to open herself. This puzzle was a gift from Maddie, a picture of a big cat lounging in a beach chair.
Mom had a good Christmas too. Maddie was serving as "head elf" or whatever, passing everyone gifts to open as we sat on the couch. Big piles of wrapping paper and gifts quickly rose in the living room this morning.
Ah, here's Jinky! A Build-a-bear Jawa teddy bear, something picked up several months ago, one of the first gifts of Christmas. It actually talks, and has a small Jawa rifle with it as well. Jawas and Maddie go back a ways, of course.
Oh, and look at this collection of Edge merchandise here. There's the new sweatshirt she's wearing, plus the t-shirt she has in her left hand of course. But in her right hand is the frame we got for her black belt certificate. She loved that and wants to have it hanging in her bedroom. No problem, Maddie!
Here's one of the gifts I received, a collection of Star Wars themed soaps. Yeah, you read that right. There's "Only Hope Soap," and "Wisdom Wash," and for a cleaner Sith experience, there's "Darkside Scrub" and and "Ruthless Rinse."
Here is a gift long awaited, and straight from Fozziwig's Rubber Chicken Factory! Fozziwig and Mom, Ltd. (established 1843), have the highest quality rubber chickens, so as you can imagine, this gem here was a cherished prize Christmas morning! Yes, Maddie got her screaming rubber chicken, and this was on Santa's list. This is one of the most annoying sounds a toy can make, and when we got these at KidPak - a flock of them - Maddie just had to have one. We'll be hearing that sound now for quite some time.
DAD (calling up to Maddie from downstairs): "Are you okay up there?"
RUBBER CHICKEN: (from upstairs) "SQUEEEEEEEEK-WHEEEEEEEZE!"
Here's a really nice gift that Mom gave me. It's a mezuzah, something that I've always wanted on the doorpost of our home. Someone hand-wrote all the scriptures inside, and it's protected in plastic and put inside a decorative container that's put at the entrance to our home. Deuteronomy 6:9, "And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."
Here's a gift that Maddie and Mom made for Aunt Shain. We didn't want to hand her some cash and a card, so Maddie folded this Christmas tree farm, I made the labels there and Mom did everything else. Jonathan wanted cash too, but again, we tried something different.
It's a cash pizza! The sign reads, "This might be cheesy, but here's a little dough." Mom made a gift for David - ELF SNOT. She spent a good amount of time mixing clear Elmer's glue with a contact lens solution, along with some green coloring. We put it into a glass jar, and I made a label for it. And then... right in the middle of that was placed his gift card, right in the midst of the snot. For Hannah we got about four Pez dispensers, and inside was a little cash for her as well. We can't just give money - we have to do something creative, so this might be a new tradition for us.
Maddie took a few pictures today - here's her new crew at bedtime, with Jinky there amongst the others.
Here's the sun rising at Christmas morning, a sunny day - and a warm one too. It was a gorgeous day outside, although we spent most of it indoors with each other.
We ate some of those Christmas cookies too! And doughnuts. And chocolates. And ... well, we ate a lot. But that tends to happen on Christmas, right? The cookie above is a joke cookie, another masterpiece from last night's cookie making. It's a super small one with a bit of holly on it there. Maddie ate this one this morning, but not before taking a picture of it.
Gifts were opened after that, and there was the usual chaos and laughter. It was very nice, all the gifts and wrapping paper scattered all over the living room. And after that it was time for the yearly white elephant gift exchange, which was hilarious. There were some really odd gifts this year, although there were a few cute ones too. We came home with something terrible, but that's part of the game of course.
In the end, we said our goodbyes after loading the cars with new gifts and leftovers. Everything is so pleasant and festive there, and always something to look forward to.
We got home and it was time to wind down, of course. We were watching a few Christmas things online, opening up boxes with new toys and just sitting down to rest finally. We read tonight and said our prayers, I called out goodnight to Maddie, and in response, I heard a rubber chicken squeak from her bedroom.
It was a wonderful Christmas time!
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