Christmas Morning 2013

As per usual, Christmas morning was a grand and glorious affair in the Madsen household.  The night before I had had an inkling that the boys would want to get up early, so I made a firm and fast rule that no one was to get out of bed before 6am.

This was a wise choice, although I did hear the pitter patter of little feet - in their rooms - at quarter to six.  I finally stumbled into the living room to find Cole and Josh huddled on the floor, whispering about the gifts they could see around the room.  They were so excited that I had "finally" gotten up!  But where was Spencer?  "Downstairs playing computer."  Really?!  On Christmas morning?!  That boy has a problem.

Things got off to a slow start getting Spencer to come upstairs and waking Tess up gently enough that she wouldn't be a super grouch.

The bean bag chair was a BIG hit.

Poor Coley wasn't feeling that great.  He wasn't completely sick, but I could tell he wasn't 100%, either.

There's always one kid who's never initially satisfied with his Christmas haul.  This year it was Josh (as can be seen from the mournful face in the picture.)  He was SURE the big box behind him had the bike he had asked Santa for.  Sorry, Joshie - that big box had the new office chair I had bought for Daddy.  I had already told him that there would be no new bikes since we had a perfectly good one in the garage that no one ever rode.  Santa Claus agreed with me.

Don't feel too bad for Josh - he eventually realized that while his gifts weren't as physically large or as obviously exciting as some others, they were tailored just for him and his tastes.  He now LOVES the art kit I put together for him and we've had a great time building stuff with his new Lego kit.

Mr. Cole opening his new - and rather noisy - toy guitar.

Tess was all about opening gifts.  She did NOT want to have to wait her turn!  She got so into it that she opened one of my gifts before anyone realized what was happening.

Josh gave Cole an Angry Birds calendar, which he was pretty excited about.  That kids loves Angry Birds!

You can kinda see the carnage that Christmas morning brings to the living room.  What a mess!

I'm kicking myself for not getting a video of it, but Tess's reaction to opening the "Despicable Me 2" DVD we got her was so cute.  (She's been in love with Minions ever since she was one for Halloween.) She can't pronounce "Despicable", so when she realized what it was it came out as "Oooooooh!!!!! STICKABLE ME!!!" We of course watched Stickable Me 2 later that morning, much to everyone's delight.

I'm not sure what Josh was doing in this picture - probably complaining about something. ;)

Dad and Susie gave Cole a latches board, which kept him busy much of the morning.  Good gift!  They also gave Spencer and Josh Perplexus balls, which they fought over and played with all day.

Cole bought Tess this tiara and jewelry set, which she instantly fell in love with and demanded to wear all day.

What a little princess!  Before naptime I read her the "Fancy Nancy" book Grandpa and Grandma Roper sent, and she oohed and awwed over how Fancy Nancy also had crowns and necklaces and earrings.  It was way cute.

So apparently Spencer has been a punk and been telling Josh that Lance and I are Santa Claus. That jerk.  Fortunately, after giving Spencer the EVIL EYE, I convinced Josh that there's no way we could be Santa because where would we have hidden all of these huge gifts this year?  But we also had one more magic bullet in our arsenal, if you will.  Wait, that seems like a awkward metaphor for this.  Maybe one more trick up our sleeves? One more nail in the coffin?  Yikes. No.  Okay, whatever.

A few weeks ago we realized that the Roku remote was missing.  We tore that basement apart looking for it!  Okay, not really.  Spencer and Josh wandered around, complaining about not being able to find it but not really looking and Lance and I both gave the basement a good once over looking for the dang thing. Finally, I put up this sign, with a King Sized Snickers bar in front of it, hoping it would lure the boys into really searching for the remote.

No such luck.

Lucky for us, Santa found the remote, took the Snicker's bar, and left the wrapped remote in its place.  Josh's faith in the jolly old man was restored.

The rest of the day was spent lounging around, reading, resting, and telling kids that there was no way they could be bored because the house was full of new toys.  We Skyped with the Grandparents Madsen and Facetimed with the Grandparents Roper.  We ate lots of junk and played Monopoly.  We catered to a princess, but didn't give in to her demands of not having a nap.

It was a good Christmas Day.