Since we had Christmas with my family early, we didn't have any specific plans for Christmas morning. It is the first Christmas morning since Catherine was born that we haven't been up at 4am in order to catch the first plane out of Boston, so I was pretty pleased with it. The kids each opened one gift, we had a late breakfast, then Gigi and Papa joined us for a walk down to the Cathedral for a Christmas Mozart Mass.
After church we packed up all our presents and an overnight bag and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for the big family Christmas dinner. I got tired of trying to take pictures after dark so I don't have any pictures from the party, but we had a lot of fun and it was great to see everyone, and even a few people that we haven't seen there in a couple years. Plus we got to open gifts from Mamo and Papa. After a couple days to ponder the initial present opening with my family, Michael Jr was more addicted to ripping paper open than ever!
We all spent the night so we could have another Christmas morning the next day, although Catherine and Mary were pretty convinced it was no longer morning by the time all their aunts and uncles were awake. But they had two Christmas celebrations to look forward to that day, first with Grandma and Grandpa and Chris, Sunny, Olivia, Tommy, and Jena, and later with all of that family plus Gigi, Papa, Todd, Greg, Ann, Spencer, Dane and Bennett. I think it was worth the wait in the end.
Michael volunteered to show Olivia the ropes when it comes to opening presents. I'm not exactly sure how she feels about that.
But she was happy with the end result: getting her new toy out!
Mary opened a new tea set (of the non-breakable variety, because Michael Jr broke most of the last one in his enthusiasm for playing tea). Catherine spent a good part of the rest of the day running The Good Tea Shop (whose name evolved from the original Tea Shop of Goodness). She served tea to most of the house.
Mary decorated her new cupcakes.
And added them to the offerings of Catherine's tea shop.
Catherine was sure to don her "restaurant gloves" before she handled anyone's food.
Other than a short break for a spot of tea, Michael Jr devoted most of his time to his new cars.
Little cars.
Big cars.
Did you know one of the wise men drove to the stable in a powder blue convertible?
He managed to suck Uncle Tommy in the toy car fun as well.
His new block train took a backseat at first, but he's been playing and building with it more and more.
Mary and Catherine also really like this old-school lace-up doll, where they can "sew" different clothes onto the doll.
Although the new toys were the immediate attraction, we have read dozens of new books in the last few days. Go ahead, ask Catherine which one is the deepest ocean, or what the middle of the earth is made of, or where rivers end. They are having a lot of fun with some new science books!
Baby Olivia was pretty much only happy with Mom or Dad, but we're blaming it on a mild ear infection instead of accepting that she doesn't like any of us.
Ha - I always catch these two having a good time. What are they laughing at?
This. Cousin Dane is an infinitely good sport when it comes to preschool games and antics.
Besides allowing a Giant Pillow Stack Hat to be built on his head, he also fully participated in the Cat In The Hat board game, which involves a trick-a-ma-stick, among other things, and he and Uncle Tommy were willing players in a game of Simon Says that involved a lot of barking and jumping. Thanks, guys!
