Christmas 2011

Christmas morning, Angel awoke first, around 7:00.  She desperately wanted to awaken Grins and go upstairs, but the Mr. asked if she would mind waiting until he'd had a chance to shower.  So she cozied up next to me in bed and waited very patiently, not even asking once when she could go upstairs.  The Mr. finally finished showering and dressing around 7:30, at which point she said, "Can I wake up Grins and go upstairs now?!"  We laughed and obliged, and the two of them ran upstairs excitedly, with us following close behind.

Angel was delighted to find the Science kit she'd ask Santa for, and Grins was thrilled with his spy kit.  They were equally delighted with the nuts, oranges, cough drops and vitamins (plus a few chocolates) in their stockings!  They kept plenty busy until after 8 when we finally allowed them to awaken Wiggles, as we needed to leave for church at 8:30.

Wiggles got a quick peek at her gift from Santa, and we then got everyone dressed and out the door in record time.

Not the best photo but we had to run off to church! :)

After church, we returned home and got back into our PJs.  (It's tradition)  The Buchanan Family traditional Christmas morning breakfast is ebel skeevers but we don't have an ebel skeever pan.  The Stout Family traditional Christmas morning breakfast is sausage breakfast casserole and Cinnabons but there is no cinnabon near us and last year's breakfast casserole was a disaster.  So, we decided to start our own family tradition.  It was fun....but probably just a one year event (you'll see why:)

A couple of weeks before Christmas, I asked the children what they wanted for Christmas morning breakfast.  They had recently decorated a Gingerbread house (long story short: they decorated it in the church nursery one Tuesday night while I was working with the Young Women.  After Young Women, I admired their beautiful job, carried the gingerbread house out to the car and set it on top of the car.  You can guess where this is going.  After loading up all of the very tired children and a young woman I was driving home.....I forgot about the house.  Until I heard a huge crash a moment down the road.  Not wanting to litter, I returned and picked up whatever gingerbread and platter fragments I could, but it devastated the children.  And we didn't have the time or means to replace all of the ingredients necessary to make more houses....)

Naturally, the children asked if we could make Gingerbread houses for Christmas breakfast.  I suggested that, since they would likely have sweets in their stockings, we select a more nutritious and substantial breakfast.  That is when Angel came up with the "Waffle house" idea.  I doubted it would work but the Mr. insisted we could make the waffles extra crispy and give it a try.  So we did:

Waffle walls and roof with whipped cream 'glue' and blueberry syrup 'snow'.

Wiggles chose to decorate hers with strawberries, nuts, and cereal bits.

Grins went crazy with whip cream and sprinkles.

Angel was determined to make hers work, and disappointed when it didn't hold together.

In the end, though, they were all delicious!  And we had fun!

After breakfast (which was technically brunch) we finished opening presents.  Most of the pictures look the same: the children smiling as they open, or holding up their gift, so I'll simply post the year's favorites:

Grins - Lego Star Wars from Grandma and Grandpa Stout

Wiggles - candy.  She literally would not even open other presents until she was done with her candy (I finally took it away!) as is evidenced by the following shot of her surrounded by unopened gifts as she sports a candy-covered face.  Of course Angel and Grins willingly helped her unwrap, kind older siblings that they are!  The doll from Santa came in second.

Angel - the porcelain ballerina doll from the Mr. and I

My favorite - this beautiful hawaiian blanket, gifted to the children's great-grandmother in Tahiti many years ago, and hand stitched by our very own Oma for our family.  Beautiful and so meaningful with such an incredible story behind it!

After opening gifts we were able to Skype with both sets of grandparents, have a simple Christmas dinner as a family, and speak again of our gifts to the Savior for the coming year.  It was a simple, quiet, and beautiful day with our little family, and we loved every minute of it!