Christmas Eve (of which we have no pictures because our batteries died) Gammie and Gampy Wake took all the grandkids to Build-a-Bear. The kids all picked out their animal (Rebecca: a white bear; Jane: a blue bear; Alex: an Elephant; James: a panda) and dressed them (Rebecca's had a white dress; Jane's had a blue dress; Alex's became batman; James was kung-foo panda). It was great fun for everyone to watch the kids during this activity.

When we got home we made sure the stockings were hung in a row (who has a mantle this long?!), all 14 of them, and got the dinner ready. After a hearty meal we read the Christmas story, then let the kids open their traditional Christmas Eve present: pajamas (or, in this case, sweat outfits). We then tucked the kids in and prayed they'd fall asleep quickly.

Christmas morning started around 7:30am with stocking opening and Santa present admiring. We then let the kids dish out the gifts and took turns laughing and exclaiming over them. In case you're wondering, the black and green buckets in front of the tree was the traditional "tool" gift for the boys: cement mixers, which housed Bose headphones so they could listen nicely to music while using the tool.


Peter insisted on showing Gampy his street sweeper truck. Those two sat on the couch for quite a while playing and sharing. What good boys!


Alex and Andrew got a glow-in-the-dark space station train set, while the girls got a doorway puppet theater. All in all it was a very fun, satisfying, crazy Christmas morning!