Holy SHIP it's Christmas!

Thanks to mommy bloggers, Noah and I realized that we've been doing Christmas wrong all these years in our marriage--we've been buying our kids their presents at stores instead of making them.

So this year, we did it right. And we did it better than every mommy blogger out there.

But I'm getting ahead of myself... Let me start with Christmas eve:

Festivities began for us with the kids sprinkling magic Reindeer food on our lawn so Santa's reindeer would have energy to complete their long journey (for those of you living in the West coast, that basically means we single handedly saved your Christmas, so you're welcome).

then it was dinner time. This year, we went for a simple, but significant dinner of fish and honeycomb. If you're wondering why that's significant, it's probably time for you to start going to church.
honeycomb looks so cool, but boy is it powerful stuff!
This year, we decided to do eve gifts, which we do some years. I found pirate pajamas for Oliver and Saturn/ rocket pajamas for Alex (he's very into outer-space right now, and really loves the planet Saturn). Gabby doesn't particularly care about sock monkeys, but I couldn't find any PJs with a book pattern so that's what she got.
Bedtime. We read the Christmas story out of the bible, and a handful of other Christmas themed books before sending the kids off to bed. Alex and Oliver fell asleep without any problem. Gabby wasn't asleep until midnight. She was too excited.

My first Christmas gift this year was that my kids slept until 8:30 AM! Which was awesome because I stayed up until 2 AM finishing Christmas preparations.

Santa made it to the house, leaving the kids stockings filled on their beds. Oliver got coal in his stocking (coal gum), and a rock, which is exactly what he asked Santa for when we saw him at the Children's museum.

The tree was also loaded with presents below it (because I had stayed up until 2 AM wrapping them), but those had to wait until after breakfast.

For breakfast, we ate delicious Santa pancakes covered in whip cream and loaded with raspberries. But you know, the kids were so excited about the presents under the tree that they hardly ate anything.

And then it was the much anticipated present opening time

Oliver started things off. This was his first year of being excited for Christmas which made it extra special. He insisted on playing with every toy he opened before letting anyone open another present, which meant that Christmas lasted a whole lot longer.

My nerdy kids got exactly what they asked for...a kit for growing crystals for Alex, and...a DNA laboratory--complete with centrifuge--for Gabby.

If you're thinking that these gifts look surprisingly store bought for a homemade Christmas, you're right. The kids got Christmas money and gifts from their grandparents, uncles and aunts (Noah and I only bought few of the gifts under the tree).

The real present from us was in the basement.

... concealed by a paper barrier:
This is what the kids looked like (note the glum expression on Alex's face--after all the excitement from present opening wore off, the flu set in):
this is what they were looking at:
HOLY SHIP!

Initially, Oliver was a bit apprehensive about the ship since Noah put a rocking mechanism on the thing, so it literally ROCKS!

He has since warmed up to it

But wait, there's more!

Noah built an indoor half pipe--you know, for the kids.
The kids actually really love it-- what kid wouldn't! I however, have stayed off the thing remembering what happened last time I got on one.

Christmas night was spent at my best friend, Adrea's house in Indianapolis where we had the best Christmas dinner of my life. Seriously.

We got home around 2:00 AM, put the kids in their beds, gave Alex a drink of water, and watched as he threw it up violently (along with everything else he ate). I think he must have caught the flu bug that's been going around. So we got to clean up puke.

Next year, we're getting the kids each a pair of socks. That's it. And you can bet they'll be store bought.