Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas! We started on Christmas Eve with our traditions of getting ready for Santa - opening one present (it's always pajamas), milk and cookies, reading The Night Before Christmas and putting out reindeer food.

Kayci woke up first at 6am. Actually, Kristi and I were awake laying in bed. We heard her feet hit the floor, then we heard her quietly open her door and tiptoe into the living room. A couple of minutes later, she came into our room and "woke us up." "Santa came!," she said. We got up and let Noble sleep a little extra. She picked through her stockings and the things that Santa had left out for her while I made coffee.

After a little while, she could hardly contain her excitement anymore and asked if we could go wake up Noble. That's usually a pretty bad idea, but since it was Christmas, Kayci was confident that a "Merry Christmas, Noble. Santa brought you presents" would do the job without him having a meltdown. And she was right. He didn't want to walk out for some reason, though. He wanted me to carry him. It took him a moment when we came around the corner and saw the train table and the Thomas the Train track and playset Santa had left for him, but he quickly broke out in a huge smile. The first thing he said was "Daddy- play Thomas Train with me!" We looked at the train set for a few moments and then started digging in to the stockings and playing with other things that Santa had brought the kids.

Kayci distributed presents while Noble helped himself to some of his Christmas chocolate, and the kids started open their presents from me and Kristi. According to Kayci, it took two hours and fifteen minutes to open all of our presents. That's not because there were tone of presents - it's because when we open presents we always open them one at a time, and we frequently open them and play a little as we go. And surprisingly, Noble didn't really want to open his presents. He was very content with what he already had open. We practically had to beg him to open the next present a couple of times. Having a little kid who doesn't want is really nice. And having a big kid who seems genuinely appreciative of the things she unwrapped is something we could have only imagined. I know I wasn't that kid when I was her age.

While the kids played with their toys, Kristi and I started getting ready for the day. We had our traditional buttermilk crumbcake breakfast, played some more and started getting dressed to head to Pflugerville to see Kristi's brother and his family (which has become another of our Christmas traditions).

This Christmas was special for us because it was all about our little family. I had some vacation time left, so I was able to take the week off, so we got a lot of time to just hang around and be together. Hopefully, the kids will remember times like these when they look back on their childhood Christmases thirty years from now. I know I'll count it among my favorite Christmases.

So from the Pharaon family to yours, we hope you had a very Merry Christmas!