Santa is my hero

For round 2 of our Christmas pictures, we'll focus mostly on Christmas morning itself. First, a little bit of preparation for the big day:


Now let me explain. Abby and Ethan are sitting at the table by the fireplace where we have placed Santa's cookies and milk. You will notice that there is more that just snacks on that table, though. You see, not everyone knows this, but Santa has a room at the North Pole where he keeps a collection of gingerbread houses made by his favorite children. Since we make a gingerbread house every year (well, let me clarify: we decorate the pre-made house they sell at Wal-Mart--do I SEEM like the homemade gingerbread house type to you? I didn't think so.) we always have a present for him! Of course, we are sad that we can't keep our house to look at for the next 2 months, but he IS Santa. Recently we got it on good authority that Santa in fact likes to receive Christmas crafts of any kind made by children. I love that jolly old elf.

This was the kids' payload. Seriously, they got way too much stuff. Matt and I originally disagreed about whether or not Santa wrapped presents--when I was growing up he ALWAYS did. Then, though, Santa pointed out to me that when Santa doesn't wrap presents, he can spend that time watching DVR'd episodes of Modern Family with all his extra time. I was converted.

This is the kids' reaction to seeing their stuff. They got so excited. This was the best year yet for over-the-top reactions to presents. It got almost comical. Ethan nearly stopped breathing over a t-shirt.

See what I mean? He is hugging the Moon Dough that Santa brought him. He picked Moon Dough as a present to give to the boy in the family we bought for this Christmas, and since then had become obsessed with getting his own. He kept telling anyone who would listen all about it, quoting verbatim from the TV commercials. "It's like nothing you've ever played with before!"

Ethan also got a Spiderman costume. He wore it the entire day, until bedtime. It has built in muscles and makes his rear end look even scrawnier than it is. Abby wore her PJs all day.

I wish I had taken a picture of our living room a few hours after present time. It looked like a toy room exploded. You couldn't walk. Granted, this is only slightly different than normal, but it was a little overwhelming even for me. We're still putting stuff away.

Oh, and the Moon Dough that Ethan practically wept over? He played with it for 10 minutes and it's been in the box ever since. Awesome.