This was the year. We've been expecting it for the past three years. Evelyn didn't sleep last night. She finally drifted off, and then woke up and ran into our bedroom at 1 AM to ask if it was time to wake up yet. She only got about half-way through her sentence when she noticed the clock. She sighed a long-suffering kind of sigh and slumped back to her bedroom. She came in again around 3 AM and exclaimed, "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SLEEP THIS NIGHT WITH ALL THE EXCITEMENT?!?!" We found out this morning that she had been in her room between 1 and 3 listening to Christmas music and daydreaming about today's promised treasures. She did eventually drift back off to sleep, but she might need a nap today.
We finally crawled out of bed at about 7 AM. Penny woke us all up when she discovered that we had hung a blanket to block off the view from the hallway, and she thought it was the scariest thing she had ever seen. (She also did this to the snowflakes we hung up two days ago.)
We peeked out the window and what to our wondering eyes did behold, the white Christmas we've all been waiting so anxiously for. We had our ritual Christmas morning prayer, thanking Heavenly Father for the gift of His Son. Then we pulled down the blanket and turned up Mannheim Steamroller's "Joy to the World" full blast. Sorry neighbors, but we have to dance to it every Christmas morning. This year was especially fun because Penny joined us in the dance.
After our dance we opened just a few presents while we waited for our oven to preheat. Evelyn was lucky because her first gift she opened was Santa's big gift to her: her dragon toy. (This year Evelyn asked Santa for lots of dragons and some money.) As soon as our oven beeped, we stopped and made our breakfast: Pigs in a blanket. While they cooked, we opened a few more gifts, then we paused again to eat. It was nice to kind of take things slowly this year and enjoy the individual presents more.
Evelyn made us a cute calendar for next year. She also wrote me a poem. I should really start compiling those in a book. Those little hand-made gifts are the most special presents I get. --But I also really loved the new outfit that Michael bought me.
Really, we were kind of lucky this year to get any presents at all. The only reason we did is that I already had Christmas bought and paid for when our water heater went out....and then our fridge died...and then our car needed repairing. It was quite the December! But I chose to look at it that I also got a new water heater and a brand new fridge!!!
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| Penny spent the whole morning eating the bone Santa gave her, and staying out of trouble. |
As soon as we finished unwrapping the presents and digging through our stockings (Evelyn's had a small roll of quarters in hers!) Evelyn started begging to go play out in the snow. So we bundled everyone up, including Penny and went sledding.
Here is another video of our little sled-dog:
And here's a family Christmas picture of us:
