Happy Christmas Day!

This Christmas we kept with our most recent (and delightful) tradition of being home so the boys can wake up to what Santa brings in their own house. I love this day because its quiet and comforting and everyone is content.

The boys woke up around 7, which is pretty typical for them and Collin came in and asked if he could go downstairs. I told him no, because Drew had to set up the video camera, so they went to the lookout to spy what Santa had brought. I could hear their excitement all the way on the other side of the house warm tucked in my bed.

Collin: "Oh my goodness! (squee!) he brought Ninjago legos!"

Owen: "Look, construction equipment! (commence jumping around)"

They were brimming with excitement, so when we got our act together, grabbed the camera and video camera and made our way downstairs they were anxious to open gifts.

This photo is of Collin on the upstairs couch waiting for the "all clear" to go downstairs.

Here's Owen, trying to contain his excitement.

And Collin, amusing himself as he waited for us.

Then the festivities began! The first items off the top were a book Owen had wanted for awhile (with construction equipment in it) and Collin's latest favorite, the Ninjago legos. Santa doesn't wrap things at our house, so it was easy to see what he brought. Only the gifts from us and other family members are wrapped.

It was clear all morning how much our boys adore books. Once they each had one in their hands they were nose deep in the pages, I had to ask if they wanted to open more gifts. Both were content to sit and look at books.

Santa also brought a crane, which Collin had been asking for, made of the Tonka heavy duty steel so it will be able to go outside come spring and summer. He was attached to this once he got it out of the box. Collin also got a new Slush, which he's been talking about all year since his old one took a dive in the toilet and was not salvageable, thanks to his brother. Owen bought him this for christmas, and Collin decided the crane was the right way to carry him around for a bit.

The boys picked out books for their dad and did a fairly good job for being 4 and 6.

We also got him a router lift, which hopefully will come in handy for all the woodworking to be done in our house!

Recently we found that we were down one babaclava- one of the boys left it somewhere, so Owen got a new one, which he was pretty pumped about.

More legos from Aunt Susie's and Uncle Chris

And blocos for Owen from Aunt Susie and uncle Chris

A couple of ornaments from grandma and grandpa Hollman and great gram Montgomery

and a slew of other games, books and such from mom and dad.

Owen gave us one of my favorite gifts, a calendar he made at school with a handprint image for each month. Its adorable and will always help me remember him as a 4 year old.

Overall it was a great Christmas. The boys were grateful for their gifts and we're please to play all day in their jammies and build legos. Drew picked me up so alcohol free wine so I didn't complain about not being able to drink and we enjoyed a fantastic prime rib for dinner with stuffing, salad and fruit. It was a slow and meandering day with much love and joy across our household. 

These ages are some of my favorites around the holidays, 4 and 6 means that the magic is fresh and there is so much adoration for what is possible on Christmas night. The boys show sheer joy in all the fun of the holiday and really revel in the time they get to play and enjoy their things. I love that the are independent enough to play without us, but also still want to engage in family games and togetherness. Drew spent most of the day building legos with them and later on we played Headbandz, which was fun because it was Drew would could not figure out what his was.

Its hard to imagine that next year there will be five of us around the tree and that we'll be sharing the holiday with our little girl too. I realize its a long way off, but I savored this Christmas as the last one with just the four of us.