Christmas morning

Our tree looks a little sad - the ornaments and ribbons have been pulled of a million times by a certain 2-year-old. But look at that joyful face...how can I get mad?

You know, I thought I'd take a lot more pictures of all of the stockings and present-opening frenzy, but it seems I was caught up in all of the action of the morning and took almost none. And I even had a new camera! Well, I caught a couple, at least. Maggie was so thrilled to have beautiful princess outfits - finally! Every time she'd go to friends houses they dressed up and had "girly" toys. She had almost no girl toys (monster trucks, anyone?), and definitely no dress-ups (oh, except for firemen and dragons...). Poor, deprived, little girl!
The kids got lots of wonderful gifts, but they were especially excited about the new bikes they all got. None of them had ever had a new bike. We'd basically used bikes that friends had outgrown or discarded (one we found in our rental house shed - the previous owners had more sense than to take the decrepit bike with them, but we said "score! a free bike!"). We're such cheapskates! We now live on a cul-de-sac where it's perfect (flat and safe) to bike around every day, so there was really no excuse to keep them on barely functioning rustbuckets.
Please don't judge me by my ridiculously messy storeroom. There's a reason I allowed it to be captured on film. At one point I had thought it would be fun for the kids to wake up on Christmas morning and see their bikes under (well, around) the tree. But I didn't want the bikes to overshadow and take precedence over everything else that Christmas morning, so I hid them in the laundry/storeroom. The kids never want to go in there anyway. So, after all of the other gifts had been opened, and Aaron kept forlornly hinting that he thought there would have been one more gift, I said I had another thing for us to do that morning. I told the kids that in the new year they were going to become a bit more independent and learn how to wash their own clothes, and that I was going to teach them their first lesson Christmas morning (what a Grinch! Hee, hee, hee). So, amid a lot of groans and moans, we all trooped downstairs to the laundry room. Joe was already stationed in the corner (look for the shimmery, blue shorts) with the camcorder to see their reactions. To say the least, they were ecstatic! I really got Aaron good.
Here's one last shot of Maggie before bed. She's clutching little pieces of a toy she got (why did I get one more toy with small pieces???), which I know she won't give up and will end up sleeping with them.

It was a really relaxed and wonderful Christmas with just our family. Except there were no yummy treats, which I would have thrown up anyway. I look forward to next Christmas when I can concentrate on the Spirit of Christmas, instead of the feeling in my stomach.