Christmas

Christmas morning at our house was amazing! It was just how Christmas mornings should be. We heard the boys stirring on the monitor so Dave and I ran upstairs with the camera and the video camera. Lucy still was not awake at 7:15 (gasp!) so the boys jumped on her bed and got her up.
Let me back up a bit. This was our first Christmas in our new house. Decorating in a new house always takes a little longer and a few years to get things exactly where they should be. There is no great place to put our tree. We could have put it in the dining room or the entry, but we wanted the tree where we live. There's something so magical and wonderful about a decorated, lit tree. The tree ended up in the breakfast nook. It wasn't the best spot, but we didn't have to rearrange the entire downstairs to make it work. Gus was really, really, really upset about the tree in the breakfast nook. He measured the steps from the fireplace to the tree and it was higher than he could count. He thought Santa would not make it all the way to the tree from the fireplace. We spent a month reassuring him it would be okay. He was still worrying about it on Christmas Eve. Another dilemma, we now have a first floor master. We were a bit concerned that we would miss the first look at the tree and the presents with the kids if they came downstairs to get us. They have to walk down the stairs, glance at the nook, pass through the family room, go through a little hall, and land in our room.
Dave and I made it upstairs before the kids came down. That alone made our Christmas! The kids came down and ran straight to the empty plate of cookies and empty mug of milk, then they looked in their stockings and then they went to the tree. They were thrilled. Ecstatic. Lucy got a UNC fleece and a camera. Gus got a baseball mitt, ball, and a camera. Judson got a Rex (from Toy Story) flashlight and Buzz Light Year. Lucy and Gus saved the presents they made for Dave and me and insisted that we open them immediately. It was so sweet how they were so excited to give! Then we moved all the other presents from under the tree to the family room. We made piles and took turns opening presents. It was perfect. Then we made our southwest version of Eggs Benedict.
We had planned to leave for Illinois on the 26th, but a crazy amount of snow was predicted to hit Cary on Christmas Day. We decided on the 23rd to leave late Christmas morning. Everything was packed and ready to go on the 24th, so we loaded up and left at 11:30 Christmas morning. The kids got five new movies for Christmas, so they didn't mind the car ride at all. They are amazing little travelers! We hit snow around Burlington (about 45 minutes west of here). The roads weren't too bad. The worst was North Carolina and Virginia. The snow in Virginia was gorgeous. It was big and fluffy, the kind where you stick your tongue out and catch five snowflakes without even trying. Lucy and Gus walked around in it a bit while we stopped for a potty break in Virginia. The mountains weren't bad at all, which is nice, considering the amount of money we pay in tolls to get through West Virginia. We made it to Dayton in eight hours. We pulled up to the (Hampton) Inn to see if there was room. In our entire married life we've never just pulled up to a hotel and asked for a room, it was only appropriate that the first time was on Christmas! It was a sweet, memorable Christmas Day!