We started Christmas morning by walking downstairs to the family room.  Everything was in the family room and Amanda and I were so excited to see it all again after wrapping presents that evening.

We wanted to start the morning by using the nativity that we had set up in the family room to retell the story of Christ and his birth.  Trying to tell the story in the room with several hundred presents with a little boy was a slight oversight on our part, so most of the story got told in a “hurry up” fashion.  We will try this again next year in a room that is different from the room with the presents….

So we started to bring the presents out to Jonathan one at a time.  The first present was actually a toy that was passed down from someone else a couple days before.  We decided to give him the hand-me-down toys on Christmas so it was all on one day.  Well, Jonathan decided he liked some of the new toys a little too much.  We couldn’t distract him from the toys to his actual presents until I started to open some so that he could see that the presents were also toys.  In all, there was probably a 30 minute delay to opening the real presents.

At the end of the present opening for Jonathan, there was almost no floor in the family room that wasn’t covered with toy or wrapping paper.  I was impressed.  And I think that Jonathan gave equal time to each new toy or puzzle.  It was a lot of fun.

I made cinnamon rolls and coffee cake and both were exceptional.  We decided that all breakfast items should be made the night before.  It was a lot of running back and forth.

Finally, Amanda and I opened our presents.  Amanda got some amazing cookware and a cookbook that I had successfully hid from her for more than a month.  I got a puzzle, wii game, under armour and a football.  I did not get the football fully unwrapped before Jonathan’s eyes lit up and he said FOOTBALL! and took it from me before I could get it out of the package.  The rest of the day and all this week, when I’ve gotten home from work, we have run around the house with Jonathan running with his smaller football and me with my big football.

We also Skyped with my family and Amanda’s family which made the day feel a lot like a normal Christmas even though we are far away.  Our families got to see the carnage of the day and watch him run around.

It was a fun day.  Grace had no idea what happened.