Our family tradition lies on Christmas Eve morning. We started this our first Christmas together to accommodate both Amaya and Ely's busy Christmas schedules. However, Amaya was not able to be with us for Christmas Eve 2012 and she was missed greatly.
Ely had a lot of trouble getting to sleep Sunday night. That did not stop him from getting up at 5:45a.m. ready to delight in Santa gifts and surprises. He was very patient with us as we woke up, fed the baby, changed baby's diaper, and finally headed down stairs.
From Ely's bedroom there was a trail of peppermints (Ely's favorite candy...strange child.) At the beginning of that trail Santa had left a baseball guy nutcracker (Ely's Christmas gift tradition.) He has received a nutcracker each Christmas for five years.
Down the stairs we go following a peppermint trail....
which lead to this smile....
...which lead to more peppermints! 620 peppermints in that box to be exact. What do you do with so many peppermints? Eat two each day for a year until you run out. Then pray that Santa brings you more again next Christmas.
Sawyer was on Santa's nice list too. His favorite gift was a diaper wipes warmer.
Christmas exploded in our living room again this year.
And just who is going to clean all of this up?
"Not me!"
Baby's first Christmas.
We hope that everyone's Christmas was as merry as ours!
Love and Laughter,
Jen, Ely, Philip, and Sawyer
