ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

My brother's kids apparently woke them up at 3am because they were so excited to get their gifts. My brother did the same thing to my parents when he was a kid. I didn't and neither do my kids. So this year Blake was the last one up and we all sat waiting patiently for him since he's the only one who still "believes" and would be the most excited. Payton waited patiently to open her gifts and Blake finally got up around 9:30 or so.

In our family, Santa leaves out all of the gifts and they are already setup and ready to play with for the most part. So Blake comes out and starts to play with the big item that is setup in the living room....



He loves playing with it ("it" is a suspension bridge marble track with an elevator that takes the marbles to the top once they reach the bottom) and says "I love this...I wish I had one." We think that he thought it was Payton's because she was showing him how it works but it was so cute that he didn't even know the stuff was for him.

Payton's gifts didn't take up nearly as much space but did take as much or more from the bank account. The piez de resistance was the one item she had wanted so much...

...a lime green 4GB iPod Nano.

I stuff 6 stockings every year (the kids, my parents, Andy and Ali) and it's my favorite thing by far, hands down to do. I've been doing them since I was 15 and love to find very personal, small gifts to go in each one. Some stockings being opened...




Harley the Dog opening his gift bag...


After we exchanged gifts, my parents left to spend some time with some family and we stayed at my parents house. It was one of my favorite Christmases ever because we got to really relax, the kids got to play with their toys but we still got to see some family. Andy slept most of the day....


The kids played most of the day...


and I cleaned up and did laundry. I didn't set out to clean for so long but it takes a lot of time to get all of the gifts put up and organized and it felt good to have things straightened up after making a mess.

We never got out of our PJs - it was perfect.