Christmas!

Pajamas lovingly made by Grandma Tregaskis!



Christmas this year was pretty near perfect at the Findlay home. My parents did the Santa put-together as a surprise so we went to bed at 11 pm and slept until 7. Not too shabby. In the morning, once we were ready, the plan was to let each child loose one at a time so I could get a picture of his/her face as he encountered the glory of Christmas morning. Each child came running in with a fake, frozen smile, stopped dead in front of the camera and stayed there, waiting for the flash, with out looking from left to right at the presents around them. Huh.

Ben waited for his allotted "flash" and then casually looked around before doing the double take of all double takes. He saw his bike and I think it took a few moments before he realized that THIS thing was HIS! For a second, he just stared at it before bounding over. "I GOT A BIKE!" Yes. Not only a bike, but the 'COOLEST BIKE IN THE WHOLE WORLD'!

Lizzy came running and stopped about halfway into the room. She posed as only Liz can pose before going for her stocking. Mean mom that I am, I wouldn't let them have any candy before breakfast. (I let them once, and 3 kids threw up.) We couldn't have that mar Christmas morning. After checking that her stocking was safely stowed, she turned as Jane came in, 'froze' for her picture, and then they both began testing all the doors, knobs, and buttons on their play kitchen. Jane's first action after that was to look for the presents she bought for others. The girls spent the entire morning making a wedding lunch in their room and getting all dressed up for it. I was invited to tea and the dancing to follow.

Liam was the only one who came straight in, (of course I didn't get a picture of him because by that point, I had given up) found his GeoTrax airplane, and began exclaiming over it while trying to tear it open. He tossed the name card aside without reading it; he KNEW this was meant for him. He only asked for one thing for Christmas, and while it didn't match his description exactly, it was what he wanted. (A airplane with one turning thing that's orange and has a remote control.)

Natalie came chirruping in and spent the morning wandering from kid to kid, kissing, hugging, and stealing their presents, interspersed with sitting on my lap and opening her presents. She loves to see the kids happy and was in her element that morning.

We only had a partial meltdown later that afternoon (I think because of the regular wake up time-but really, who could expect kids to sit down on Christmas day and do something ordinary like eat lunch when there were so many toys and puzzles to use?!) and that was followed by quiet time at Grandma's that lasted for almost 2 hours. Mommy got to read and rest and Daddy got to try out new Nintendo games with Ben. We were totally spoiled by our parents and friends around us who helped us out during this period of unemployment and made Christmas magical for our kids. WE LOVE AND THANK YOU! We hope everyone's Christmas was wonderful and that a great new year will follow for all of us.