Christmas Eve, Elves, and Santa's gift

With the boys still being on different schedules and with us having so many different celebrations to attend we decided staying put on Christmas Eve made the most sense this year. Grandma, Grandpa, and G-Momma came over just in time to enjoy a tamale lunch and hang out with Reed and Kieran a bit. Once the kiddos were napping we got to work assembling the boys' Santa gift. In one of the online reviews I read, the lady had said it took her husband an hour and a half to assemble it. I had great plans of putting the gift together earlier in the week, but it just hadn't happened. As Jon said, he doesn't know who this guy is but he must be an octopus because it took all five of us "Elves"  two hours of coordinated work (and a few adult beverages) to get the thing together. It came down to the wire; Grandma went in to play with Kieran when he woke and Reed was waking as we scrambled to move the gift into our bedroom.

Once the boys were awake we decided to open gifts. After gift opening we got to enjoy G-Momma's delicious minestrone soup and some yummy desserts Reed and I had made. Luckily there was time for the boys to open their pajama gifts, make a plate for Santa, and Reed even got to play one of his new games with Grandma and Grandpa while I put Kieran to bed and G-Momma and Dad caught up. Our Elf on the Shelf had left a note for Reed that morning asking him to send allergy friendly cookies back to the North Pole with Santa. Reed of course remembered this and also added that "we should only put one cookie on the plate for Santa because he gets so many from other people but that we should leave a lot of carrots because people forget the reindeer!"

We had told both sides of the family to come over anytime after 7:00 am Christmas morning. I let the boys open their stockings when they woke, but held them off from the big wrapped present in the living room until a little after 7:00. We made an apple breakfast cake and played with their stocking stuffers but they couldn't wait any longer so we let them rip into the package. They both loved Santa's gift and played with it all day (and every day since). Grandma, Grandpa, and G-Momma arrived a few minutes after the grand reveal and hung out for awhile drinking coffee, nibbling apple cake, having Reed and K "cook" for us, and just enjoying each other's company.

Grandma, Grandpa, and G-Momma left for home a little bit before Kieran's first nap. Luckily Grandma remembered to have us pose in front of the Christmas tree for our annual family pajama picture, I will call the photo session moderately successful, you can judge for yourself!