Christmas Morning 2014

We had a really lovely Christmas morning.  Gwen was the first to get up at the very reasonable hour of 6:30am.  She was so excited and said she had heard footsteps on the roof.  (Any other night that would have been a little freaky, but on Christmas, it must have been Santa!)  She opened her stocking and waited patiently for Byron and Meredith to get up.  Byron was so pleased with the contents of his stocking that he would have felt satisfied without opening a present, but he was very pleased when he did open his presents.  (The little extendable claw above has been a favorite of his these past few days.  He calls is his "pliers" and he "fixes" everything with it.) 

One of my favorite things to remember about this Christmas was Gwen's excitement at having us open up our gifts from her.  At the school craft sale she had picked out the little snowman pin for Dad and a pretty wreath for me.  She had gotten Byron some cars (that you pull back and then they speed away), and she got Meredith a stuffed animal that she and Meredith think is a fish, but I'm pretty sure it is a plane!

Gwen did a great job distributing gifts and helping the recipient unwrap them.  Byron was pretty into playing with his trains and cars and had to be convinced that he needed to open more presents.  Meredith's unwrapping skills improved 100% by the end of the morning.  She kept saying, "Happy Birthday!  Happy Birthday!"  It was precious!  At first I said, "No, merry Christmas!"  But then I remembered that "Happy Birthday" is pretty much just as appropriate!

We all got many, many nice gifts.  Thanks to those who were so generous.  We hope you had a merry Christmas too!