Christmas 2005

Christmas 2005

Watching Christmas through the eyes of your children is experiencing the holiday at a whole new level. Back in Victorian England when Christmas started catching on, the parents liked the holiday because it let them pamper and spoil their children for the day and they didn't have to provide an excuse for it. That spirit is contagious.

We let them tear into presents early. Amy actually woke up early, about 6 am which is extremely rare. She bounced out of bed in a way that I have never seen her greet the day. She was more excited than the girls. She went and woke them up early!

We made our special Christmas coffee, a special pecan cream blend. I sliced the chocolate torte cakes and brought those out to snack on. Then the kids started opening presents. Madison was actually wonderful because she made sure that her sister had a present to open each time too. She is at that perfect age where she can open the presents herself and then smile with giddy delight at what she received. She once squealed with pleasure over a simple little Winnie the Pooh book. "Mom, I got a book!" She realized quickly that the squishy presents not in boxes were clothes and ended up peeling open one part of the present to make sure and then tossed it to the side. That was funny.

Morgan received lots of cool presents. She opened boxes that contained an iPod Shuffle 512 MB (which I am gonna steal if she doesn't take care of it), a volcano to create, a microscope/telescope set, a grow-your-own-carnivorous plants set, and a Build-a-Bear that she wanted. She got lots of other little things and clothes. Too numerous to list.

Madison received some Disney princess outfits as she loves to play dress up. I must have switched clothes on her 40 times. She got a tea set; baby doll with all the furniture like a crib, stroller, and high chair; and all sorts of Dora the Explorer figures and Little People. She got tons of clothes which got chucked to the side to be worn later and plenty of kid stuff.

Amy got a DVD of the Kevin Smith movie Dogma, one of her favorite movies. I also managed to acquire a Buddy Christ bobblehead that is prominent in the movie as they are trying to modernize the church in the movie. Jesus is winking with thumbs up. It's hilarious. She got a Rachael Ray cookbook and a George Foreman Grill. She needed a new one since the one we had got busted in the move back in August.

I got a couple of sweaters (which I have been wearing a LOT more often here in Nome), one of which is a Seattle Seahawks hoodie that still has that store inktag on it to prevent theft. I don't know how I am going to get that off. The best present I received, which is really a family present, is my new Nikon Coolpix 4600 digital camera.

The big family gifts we received were two TVs. One new one, a 20" DVD TV flatscreen goes in the living room and then that old one goes in our bedroom. The girls got a 13" TV for their room. The best part is that the cable works on them and we don't need additional boxes. Can't watch HBO though because the channels don't go up that far. But it works. We also got two radio-controlled Polaris snowmachines. Plenty of snow here for those!

So Christmas Eve, I made my clam chowder from scratch as always and then I had that for lunch. We hung out all day. I got to watch the Bears beat Green Bay to clinch a first round bye in the playoffs. We had a ham that Amy made for dinner that was perfect.

Watching the kids play with their new toys on Christmas is more fun than receiving anything. Madison is developing an imagination and playing with her dolls. The most important thing of all is to develop these good memories for Madison and Morgan so that they can share these feelings one day with my grandchildren.