I told Ian earlier today, "This may be the best Christmas of our lives!" and it feels so true. There were so many good memories that I wanted to capture from today. (And just in case you are wondering - the Best Christmas Ever was the very first Christmas when God the Son took on flesh - nothing can top that)
I think the reason that this Christmas has seemed so great is that Samuel is old enough to "get it" yet he has no expectations. It results in a lot of joy.
Leading up to Christmas, people would ask Samuel, "What do you want from Santa?" and he would just stare at them blankly. This blessed my heart so much! My husband grew up not really believing in Santa and that has been something we have wanted to pass onto our kids. So we talk about Santa but we don't do much more than that. Samuel also has a speech delay that sometimes impedes his communication - I am sure this played a part as well. At some point Samuel will have a whole list of things that he would like from "Santa" but to have a seemingly content two and a half year old is amazing.
This morning when we told the boys that it was Christmas, Samuel's first reaction was to run to the other room to see the nativity scene. My mom wrapped up each piece of the nativity to correspond with The Donkey in the Living Room when they were here over Thanksgiving. We have been unwrapping a piece each day and trying to talk about the different parts of the Christmas story (that means - Samuel likes to unwrap the piece and then has a 5 second attention span for any reading I try to do). Total Mom fail - I thought he would be more interested in the presents under the tree that I did not have the next piece out.
Henry hung out in Baby Jail (a toy that holds him in one spot) and Samuel opened presents. We decided to do Read, Wear, Want gifts this year. I am sure we will do something different each year. Henry got some special sock / slippers that weren't supposed to come off. (Spoiler alert: he had them pulled off in less than a minute). I didn't wrap Henry's gift as he doesn't really understand. And if he can see Mom or Dad, he is happy.
Samuel got a firetruck, the Jesus Storybook Bible, and waterproof mittens from Mom and Dad. He got a gazillion other gifts from friends and relatives (and he hasn't even gotten some of the grandparent gifts yet). He was thrilled with his toy firetruck and carried it all over with him. He did a great job (for a two and half year old) of taking turns with Mom and Dad for opening gifts. As far as I know, Samuel thought that today was just any other day and then instead, Dad got to stay home and there were presents to open. There was no countdown to Christmas Day, no "I can't sleep because tomorrow is Christmas", no "waking Mom and Dad up at 5:30 because it is Christmas and I just can't sleep" (Hank covered the wake Mom and Dad up several times during the night thing - his second front tooth on the top is sooooo close to popping through that he was up a few times).
We had waffles for breakfast and Samuel did a lot of good pretend play with his fire truck. Henry did a lot of peekaboo and "Praise the Lord" (what we say when he puts both arms above his head). Two happy boys.
While Henry napped, we went outside and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. Once he woke up, Brent came by with a gazillion gifts! Oh my goodness - Mr. Potato Head, a police car toy, the Very Hungry Caterpillar game, Bible Word books, kitchen play cooking sets, and soooo much more.
Once he left, we tried to get lunch and kiddos down for naps. We had a gourmet lunch of "eat whatever you want" (I had a bowl of cereal and Ian had leftover pork). We try to do some conversation questions at meal times so that we can practice good conversation and not focus so much on what different people are deciding to eat or not eat (the Internet claims that this is supposed to help). Ian asked, "What was your favorite gift from today?" Samuel (completely unprompted) replied, "Gigi" which is how he says Jesus. (Did I mention that today has been the best Christmas of our lives!?!) Such a great answer! And such a great encouragement that some of the stuff we say does sink in. We then sang (along with our beloved Alexa) Happy Birthday to Jesus. And Samuel kept requesting to sing it again (the love of repetition is strong in this one).
The boys (all three of them) are waking up from naps now and we are headed over to hang out with some friends from church. What a blessing today has been! Merry Christmas!
