Christmas Day 2008

We had such a great Christmas. The kids were very excited, took time to enjoy each other opening gifts and were very grateful for all of their gifts. We took turns unwrapping gifts so everyone could see what family members, friends and Santa thought the other would enjoy.

Aunt Kim and Kim sent great gifts. Brandon had a moment of pure joy when he opened his action hero from Aunt Kim and immediately shouted, "just what I wanted" and then marched upstairs to play with his toy, leaving his other toys wrapped on the floor!!

Brandon has also been very spontaneous in giving hugs to both of us. He'll stop in the middle of some activity, run over, give a big hug and then get back to business. Those are real payoff moments in parenting. Both Marci and I marvel at how much time and effort in raising kids can be forgotten in the moment of a small hug, thank you or act of kindness to another.


Reagan also had a fun morning. Most of her toys were "recycled" from the other kids, but very new to her!! We have a stash of toys in the attic that we put away from time to time when the kids grow out of a stage or get tired of a toy. We ran through the attic and found the favorites from each of the kids when they were her age. She has fun with about anything, and I'm kicking myself for not buying the kids plastic spoons and pans, which seem to be the most entertaining "toys" of all...




Reags could only stay awake about an hour. She is not very good at hiding her tiredness, one or two eye rubs and we know she's ready for bed.


She just started sitting up on her own, which was perfect timing to play with her new stuff. It has not been a big step to crawling, and now we are all on "reagan" duty, making sure she is not wandering down the stairs, putting something foul in her mouth or pulling something on top of herself.