Christmas Day (and Christmas, take two)

(Since we're now well into the month of February, this is clearly the time to tell you about our Christmas Day. You'll probably be reading about our Valentine's Day in July. Oh, well. Better late than never?)

Our quarantine continued on Christmas Day. Despite the lingering coughs and runny noses, the littles were beyond excited on Christmas morning. The girls woke slightly earlier than normal, and waited impatiently on our bed for their brother to wake. (It was John David who remained blissfully asleep, too young to really know what was going on; Luke, though also too young to choose to wake early for Christmas, woke when the girls burst into our bedroom, begging to go downstairs.)  Once everyone was awake we had a collective mad dash downstairs.   Here at least, the parents are nearly as excited as the children -- we were just about giddy with the anticipation of their joy.

And no one was disappointed.

Our quarantine meant that the day unfolded slowly and beautifully. We opened our gifts slowly (as in, we opened the last few just before dinner) and we ate favorite holiday foods and we stayed in pajamas almost all day.

Daddy and John David work on stocking; the kid-sized picnic table from Aunt Marg and Uncle Craig was an enormous hit; Luke was absolute angel for Christmas -- so well behaved!

The girls' "big gift" was a doll house to share; John loved the rainboots he received from Kathleen and still insists on wearing them frequently, even though they're rather too large; his wooden dump truck was another hit (and yes, we let him wander around in just a diaper all Christmas morning because we're classy like that -- and it made him happy); the girls were almost as happy opening gifts for baby Luke as opening their own gifts.

By late afternoon, everyone had dressed.  (A Christmas miracle of sorts!)   We watched Curious George together -- and snuggled in close for the "scary parts" (where George is all alone and sad).

We were slow to give up Christmas.  The girls kept asking to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas andRudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer...  Daddy even indulged them in their request to be reindeer!

A few days after Christmas we ventured up to Nan and Grandpa's for a Christmas Day redo.   The bigger children were excited by all the presents (not just from Nan and Grandpa, but also from their aunts and uncles), but Luke chose to take a nap instead.

It seemed like a perfect opportunity to get a family photo -- we were all reasonably presentable and there were actually people to take the picture.  Alas, this was the best we got:

It might not have been picture-perfect, but it was a great Christmas, nonetheless!