Christmas Day

We wrapped Jacob and Claire's door on Christmas Eve (and re-wrapped it after Claire came bursting through, sobbing at 2 AM with a sore ear), so the first thing we remember of Christmas morning was the sound of our kids tearing through the wrapping paper at 8am.  We were able to stall another 20 minutes (to let the babies sleep) before we headed downstairs.

Santa brought Liam a shape sorter bucket, which he immediately started playing with.  Santa brought Kate a stuffed doggy, and it was love at first site!  She has slept with it ever since.

 

Jacob got some Nerf guns from Santa (not 8 like he requested, just 2), and Claire got some beads and painting beads.  Below, Claire models some new rain boots ("Yay, rain boots that FIT!").  After presents were opened, Jacob and Jared worked on putting together a Star Wars Lego space ship.

We spent a couple hours between 9:15-11:15 trying to soothe a crying Kate.  For the first time in Kate's life, we lit a fire in the fireplace, but failed to tell Kate not to touch, and she burned her thumb.  The burn was made worse by the fact that Kate was tired because we had woken her up early and because she hadn't eaten (and is quite cranky when hungry).  Fortunately, the Bowles had an ointment they brought over.  Between that, a Priesthood blessing, and Tangled, Kate got calmed.  It was certainly not the way we envisioned spending Christmas.  Jacob and Claire were very patient while not opening presents for so long.  We put the babies to bed after talking with Andrew on his mission in Texas, and resumed opening presents.  Babies didn't finish opening their presents until 3:30!

The presents that got the most play time were Claire's perler beads and Jacob's Lego Star Wars Wii game.  Claire and Jacob made a bunch of different creations (especially during the time we were trying to soothe Kate).  We eventually built a barricade around the TV because Jacob and Claire were jumping up onto the ottoman and getting so close to the TV.  Even with the barricade, we had to continually remind them to not get too close.  It was funny to watch them.

 

Liam spent quite a bit of time chasing around Dani's birthday balloons.  He liked letting them float up to the ceiling, and would immediately start calling out, "uh oh!" over and over until they were retrieved for him.

Kate loved wearing her shiny new shoes.  It was a bit of a challenge for her to keep them on her feet because they were too big for her, so Jared stuffed some tissue paper in the shoes to help.

Claire got a huge stack of books for Christmas.  She got a 15-book set of Beverly Cleary books and 5 other books from Santa and Amber.  I'm sure she'll have them read in no time!

Kate got a baby and a stroller from Nana.  She immediately put her baby into the stroller and took her for a walk.  She also liked to give her baby a book and a drink for her walk.  Liam also likes taking baby for a walk (normally because Kate is doing it).

Liam really liked Jared's new helmet.  He called it a ball.

I'm not sure what look Claire was going for here, with the gloves and the chocolate-covered ornament.

Kate and Liam thought it was pretty funny to be sitting on the coffee table while Dani opened her birthday presents.

We ended the day with babies listening to Grandma Vicki read a bedtime story to us (yes, the Santa is still inflated).