On Monday I realized that we had to make it until next Monday with all of the kids at home, half of the house space, and with half of their normal toys and activities packed somewhere in the garage. Since we were going to have Christmas on Saturday anyway (we are flying to Seattle on Monday and don’t want to carry toys there and back), we made a spur of the minute decision and had Christmas Monday…night. The reasoning was that: a) the thought to have it on Monday did not occur to me until Monday at noon and b) I realized that the kids would actually have time to play with their new toys if they got them sooner rather than later.
We explained that we had a hotline to Santa and that he agreed to come early. The kids were very excited. I took them out to the toy store to pick out presents for each other while Abe came home early and put out all of the presents. Thankfully we had everything wrapped on Saturday, so all he had to do was dig them out of the garage, put nicer labels on them, and stick them under the tree.
When we came home, the kids had so much fun unwrapping their presents.
All Mary put on her Christmas list this year were two things: Crayon erasers and love. My mom was right on top of that request for love and immediately started brainstorming a love basket with little notes from everyone in Mary’s life for her. She got Mary’s teacher and other family members (including Abe and me) to write notes, and she wrote Mary the sweetest note I’ve ever heard. She cried when she read it and honestly, so did I. She said that Mary is a shining jewel in her life and that she will always love and treasure her. Mary gave Nana a big hug after that.
Abe and I also gave Mary about five “love books” that symbolize our love for her, including Mary’s favorite so far: Be Brave, Little One.
We let all of the kids stay up later than usual playing with them all. Actually, Abe wanted to play Playmobile with Ammon, and he would have probably kept going until midnight if I had not intervened earlier. Those two were having so much fun playing together!
While I was putting Ammon to bed, Ammon announced for the first time ever that I should stop giving him back scratches. Surprised, I stopped, turned out the lights, and said goodnight. A minute later I noticed a crack of light shining underneath his door. Ammon just wanted to get out of bed and play more with his new playmobile set!! This warmed Abe’s heart (especially since Playmobiles were his idea).
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