On Christmas morning, before opening presents, Tom sat with the kids and read the Christmas story from the Bible.
It’s something he started last year, and when he told me the idea I told him it was horrible. It would make the kids resent the Bible, I said. It would be a wrestling match, I insisted. No one would listen, I warned.
I was wrong.
The kids loved it last year, and they looked forward to it this year. Of course they did. After spending all of Advent talking about the birth of Jesus I was like, “eh, they’ll probably be underwhelmed by the coming of the King. Let’s do that after presents.”
Krieger Family MVP goes to Tom. Again.
Thomas got two chairs for our art table, because he needs more surfaces to climb and also because I’m sick of my three children fighting over two chairs. He also got a football, and he was utterly delighted.
He ran straight to it and started saying FOOHBALL! FOOHBALL!
Two days later, on the way to my parents’ house, he chewed off both ends and two giant holes in the side of his most precious FOOHBALL!
This year David was all about Legos and dinosaurs. And dinosaur Legos.
Mary Virginia recently fell in love with plush Barbie brand dogs. She calls them Barbie dogs and everyone always responds, “Oh! Barbie dolls! I had Barbie dolls!” And then she screams NO BARBIE DOGS!! And they say Barbie dolls and it goes on and on until I step in.
Anyway, she got three Barbie dogs, including one that came with a bag, a bunch of veterinarian stuff, and barks when you squeeze its paw. The moment she opened it she asked me to take off the tag, so I never read about Barbie dog and all its features.
Just now, while writing this post, I Googled her Barbie dog and happened to read that it also makes noises when you squeeze its mouth, and that it responds to some of the veterinarian tools. So Tom went to her room and pried it out of her arms so we could try it out.
Sure enough, Mary Virginia had been dragging around Barbie dog for four days and we had no idea that she also makes eating and slurping noises.
When we show her tomorrow it’ll be Christmas 2.0.
Christmas this year was so wonderful.
Five and three are great ages for Christmas, turns out. They were excited, gracious, and patient. When David finished his gifts, he helped Thomas. They even made sure Brigham opened his gift.
In the days following, we visited both sets of grandparents where we were spoiled, spoiled, and spoiled some more.
It was amazing, delightful; what I’ve always imagined.
Also, I should mention that all three kids slept until 7 a.m. That had a lot to do with Mommy’s Christmas spirit.
After the kids opened gifts, Tom and I made breakfast and poured another cup of coffee. Eventually the kids realized we hadn’t opened our presents; we had actually completely forgotten. Being an adult is lame like that.
“Aren’t you excited to open your presents?” David asked us.
I assured David that OF COURSE we were excited to open presents, and then — a quick warning before I continue. I’m about to get REALLY sentimental here. But how can I not? When you have the most perfect Christmas morning complete with Barbie dogs and foam footballs how can you not veer into corny, saccharine territory? This is, after all, a mommy blog. Avert your eyes.
— Of course we were excited to open presents. It’s just that watching the kids’ excitement on Christmas morning… Well, we already have everything we’ve ever wanted.
Oh I think you can be excused rolling out the saccharine on Christmas Day! Our three are 6, 4 and 2 and I agree it’s the perfect age for them to be super excited and so happy and everything to be perfect for a moment. And well done kids on 7am – ours didn’t exactly wake early so much as fall asleep very very late!!
I need to get Tucker a Barbie Dog!!!!!
The photo of David sitting next to Tom, keeping his eyes on the Bible, is a keeper.