On Christmas Eve, we carry on Chris’s family tradition by having a large German dinner with Christmas cookies for dessert. It was my family’s tradition to light a German pyramid, which we now do with our boys. We talked about the Nativity; Davin dressed as a shepherd and Rowan was a king. We sang Christmas carols and before we even asked Davin if he was ready for bed, he bolted up the stairs and started getting himself ready. I thought for sure that it would take awhile to get the boys to settle down but both went to sleep rather quickly.
The next morning I woke up around 7:15. I looked at the clock in surprise, wondering where my 5:30 am wake-up crew was. Lying in bed, I waited to hear a thump of little feet hitting the floor and the click of their bedroom door. Waking at 7:15 is a usual wake-up time for the boys for any day, let alone Christmas. Unable to go back to sleep, I listened to the heavy rain outside, hoping some deep and profound Christmas thoughts would come my way, but alas there were none. Instead all I had was a funny twist in my stomach that only seems to come when anticipating going downstairs to see what Santa left under the tree. It was the same feeling that I had as a child, lying awake all night waiting for Christmas morning to come. Again I waited but still no little boys. Finally around 8, Davin came in and climbed into our bed. We waited a few minutes for Rowan and then sent Davin to wake him up. Rowan wasn’t too happy about it, but that soon changed as we made our descent down the stairs.
The boys unpacked their stockings first and it took awhile to get Rowan interested in anything else. He half-heartedly opened gifts with one hand, holding a candy cane with the other. Both boys would open a gift and then need a few minutes to play with it before moving on to another; it was a pleasant morning enjoying each gift instead of a frenzy of tearing paper. We took a break for breakfast which we enjoyed with a friend from our ward and the sister missionaries. We opened our remaining gifts with family via our web cameras. We were all very spoiled this year!
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