Christmas 2009

This year, as I mentioned, we were not doing a lot of presents. The boys just got scooters and helmets and some little gizmos in their stockings. We bought for the nieces and nephews, and got in on a few group gifts for my parents and grandparents. It was hard to not rush out and buy more, just because every one else was! There were sales everywhere, and every one I saw would ask how much more we had to do. No more.

Christmas eve came, and it was time to wrap and stuff. Stockings might be the most magical part of Christmas. I honestly do not know how a full grocery bag of things can fit into a stocking, and hang on a little hanger all night. It was quite amazing.

Christmas around the Kerby household was always the same thing. I would toss and turn all night, unable to sleep. We weren't allowed to wake up until 6 am.... so on the dot, I would run around waking my sisters up, and then we would all flood into mom and dad's room. My dad would tell us to go back to sleep, that the rules had changed, we would whine and argue that we had waited until 6. Then he would say he needed to shower and shave, we would whine a little more. Finally he would get up and go take pics of the tree and all the presents. Then he would come back and we would all go out together. We each picked a corner of the living room, I being the oldest usually snagged the couch :) and got to ripping into presents.

The Garcias adopted a similar routine. Except that our boys can't tell time, so they slept in until 715! Yay! Except my dad called at 630 to see if we were up. (When we went over for breakfast later, we found out that he had called Brooke at 630 too... on her phone, in her room down the hall. Poor dad, no one wanted to play the 6 am game any more) The boys came in our room, and had to wait for the baby to wake up. At 730 I checked on him, and he was just starting to wake up, so I grabbed him, and we went out to the tree. I took some pics before the boys could touch anything, and then all bets were off as they tore into everything under the tree.

Some how this year, we got the balace just right. Other years we had gotten them too many presents, to where they were overwhelmed and didn't appreciate any one thing. Last year I actually got them too few presents.... well, I had specified that I only wanted clothes for the kids, so that was what they got. They weren't neglected, and they had a lot of packages, but once they were open, there wasn't much to play with. This year was perfect. They loved the scooters, they loved the little $1 video games in their stockings... they loved everything. (It would have been too little if it hadn't been for presents from family and friends, but that was part of the equation.)

After opening presents and showering, we went over to my parents. My mom always makes a huge breakfast, with waffles, eggs, bacon, little smokies, and all the fixin's. We were late to breakfast, and got dirty looks from the sisters who were waiting on us to open presents, but that passed quickly as we filled our plates and tummys with good food.

For Christmas (and their birthdays) this year, my parents got the boys season passes to Disneyland. A very huge and very exciting gift.... but hard to understand for little boys. So my mom also got them Christmas snowglobes when they were on super sale... those were possibly the boys favorite toys of the whole day. Roman loves music boxes and Isaac loves Christmas songs. I think he can sing all 25 of the ones that his snowglobe plays. When we go to Disneyland later this month, they will realize how cool their grandparents are, but that day the concept was a little out of reach for them.

We rounded off the day at my grandparent's house with the other Kerby family. Their boys are all at school, so it is so rare to see the whole family together. It was a nice relaxing afternoon without presents or a lot of hub bub. Just family, the second reason for the season. My grandma is so funny though. We don't like to have her host things because she will exhaust herself baking and cooking and setting up. So she said she was just going to have snacks, like cheese and beefstick and crackers. We got there, and she had a whole ham. I gave her a hard time about all the food, and she said, well, it's just snacks. I don't know the last time that the boys said they wanted a snack and I offered them a whole ham!!!

Christmas was a lot of fun. I am enjoying my boys so much. I love that Roman and Isaac are at an age where they understand a lot more, and we can teach them the real reason that we celebrate Christmas. I also love that the baby is just figuring things out and that everything is new and amazing to him.

I realized about 3 paragraphs in that I forgot to put up pics. So I will post those seperately.