Christmas Morning at home

David and I woke up long before the kids on Christmas so excited! We couldn't wait for them to wake up and see what Santa brought for them. It would, of course, figure that they would end up sleeping late on Christmas morning. This is what our living room looked like at 7:15...

Finally, Micah woke up and we let him go wake up Laurel. She looks like such a grump in so many of these pictures because she takes some time to wake up in the morning and we didn't really give her any time. Mimi and Bubba had spent the night so they were there for the fun, too! It also meant that they helped us by taking a lot of pictures but didn't end up in very many themselves. 

They ran out to find that Santa had filled their stockings and brought Micah a tee pee for his room and Laurel a "big stroller" for her babies. She already had an umbrella stroller but she has repeatedly asked over the last few months for a "BIG" stroller

Micah was more excited about his Kung Fu Panda action figure that he asked Santa for when we had Santa over for breakfast the Friday before Christmas. Santa promised that he would bring it to him so the elves had to do a little bit of scrambling to make sure Po the Panda made it into Micah's stocking

Finally Laurel woke up and perked up!

Then, the kids got to go outside to see a surprise from Mimi and Bubba: a trampoline! We had gone back and forth about getting them a trampoline this year but decided they are just too young and then David's parents found this mini one and asked if they could get it for them. It is the perfect size for them, they can both jump together and they LOVE it! 

After Santa and the trampoline, we opened gifts to each other. David and I decided somewhere along the way that we give our kids 3 gifts on Christmas, just like the wise men brought Jesus 3 gifts. This year, we did 1) something you want 2) something you need and 3) something to read. I think we'll stick with this model for a while because it worked great, they were happy about all of their presents, BUT they didn't just get more toys to pile on top of all of the other toys they had already gotten. 

I started a new family tradition this year with our Christmas morning breakfast! I made homemade cinnamon rolls and, get this, they were NOT hard! I used my bread maker to make the dough (so it did all of the kneading and rising for me) so all I had to do was roll out the dough, fill it with cinnamony goodness, roll them up and cut them. They were all ready to go in the oven on Christmas morning! I made the kids candy canes out of strawberries and bananas go to along side their cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. It was so great to start the tradition of being at home for Christmas morning and I am looking forward to many years of memories!