Christmastime is Here {Christmas Day + Boxing Day}

Christmas morning starting dark and early with Sam waking much much before the crack of dawn.  No, it's not because he was excited about Christmas.  It's because he does that every day.  Nice.  Gregg got up with him, letting me snooze in bed a little longer (he does that every day, too, and I think he's amazing!!), though, honestly, I was too excited for Christmas morning to sleep anymore.  I came out to the living room to see Gregg cozied up by the heat vent with a tv fireplace crackling away and Sam running around like a crazy kid, carrying a baby doll and stopping only to take a bite of cold pizza in Gregg's hands as he ran by.

Running away with a full mouth and baby doll
in his hand.

Callie slept and slept and finally woke up around seven. :)  She told me the night before that she was going to dance down the hall in her new ballerina jammies to see what Santa brought her in her stocking.  She didn't quite dance, but she certainly was excited once she was awake.  Whenever she was asked pre-Christmas what she wanted for Christmas, her default response was, "I don't know!"  A few times I heard her say something like ice skates (which I'm quite certain she came up with from her favorite Corduroy's Christmas Surprise story).  It was fun to see her as she opened her stocking and her gifts that she was so excited about everything.  I heard her exclaim more than once, "this is just what I wanted!"  She even burst into a little made-up song about opening presents on Christmas as she unwrapped each one.  Man, it's fun to have a three-year-old at Christmastime!

"A jump rope!  Just what I wanted!"

Sam knew everything that was edible in his
stocking and begged to eat it as he pulled it out -
applesauce pouch, animal crackers, dum dum
sucker, you name it, straight into his mouth!

Her legitimate favorite treat: dum dums.
(All of them even in her favorite color: red.)
Man, Santa is gooood.

Note dum dum in Sam's mouth, too.

Moving on to the animal crackers.

One of the gifts I was most excited for Callie to
open was this new digital camera of her very
own!

Sam is measuring things and Cal is figuring out
her camera.

The aftermath.

After all our opening was done and we had feasted on our cinnamon-raisin sweet rolls and grapefruit and eggnog for breakfast, we got all dressed up in our Sunday best for Sacrament Meeting.  They shifted and shortened our meeting time to 10:00 am for forty minutes, so we had the Sacrament and listened to a few musical numbers by the choir and others and then we came home.  Our plan was to go to Logan to spend the day with the Elwood crew, but the snow just kept fallin' here and in Logan and all the way between.  We probably could have made the trip, but it would have been slow going and then we'd have wanted to leave earlier than normal to make it back home before dark, so in the end we decided not to risk it and just enjoy a lazy afternoon at home.  We skyped with my family for a while, watched Muppet Christmas Carol, took naps, and played with our new toys.  Gregg made Christmas Dinner Gromlets and I had time to make the Orange Cranberry Bundt Cake I had wanted to make but didn't know how to fit it into my schedule for dessert.

The masterpiece, as photographed by Callie June with her
new camera.

It turned out to be a lovely, low-key day and a perfect Christmas.  Then, since Monday was the official "work holiday", and there was a Thornley party in Logan to look forward to (we would have missed it had we gone up on Sunday), we gathered up our final gifts to give and a few new toys to show off and headed North to spend it with my family.  Heather and Terrell and Grace were in California with T's family for Christmas, so we missed seeing them, but everyone else gathered at my parents' house (even my Elwood Grandparents came over, which was fun) for some more gift exchanging and lunch.

Cal got a science kit and microscope and Sam got
"bug blocks" and some percussion instruments
from Grandpa and Grandma Elwood.

Great Grandpa and Grandma Elwood gave the kids
books and stuffed animals.

I envisioned a cute and well-posed group shot,
but instead got this hilarious series.

Which I ended up loving anyway.

After some lunch, we all loaded up again to go to my Thornley Grandparents' house in North Logan.  There was a big gathering of most of my cousins and aunts and uncles on my mom's side (only Heather's family in Cali and my uncle Randal's family who live in Arizona were missing) for the traditional "Boxing Day" party.  (The Thornleys have always gathered on the day after Christmas for their family party for as long as I can remember and I'm sure even longer than that.)  We enjoyed visiting, playing chimes (my mom and grandpa made these years ago and have amassed quite a collection of song posters for everyone to follow along on our favorite carols and hymns), listening to a mini recital from the musical ones, and eating soups and salads for dinner.

Callie was so good at her #11 part.  Seriously.  She followed along
and knew right when to ring her chime and I couldn't have been
more thrilled or prouder of how quickly she caught on.

Clearly.  ;)

After dinner, we all parted ways (why didn't I get a photo with my kids and the Thornley Greats?!  I'm still kicking myself about that) and ended yet another fun day of family Christmas cheer.