On the 12th Day of Christmas: Evidence of Santa

We gave the boys a 7:30am wake-up rule on Christmas morning and they held us to the minute. I could hear snickers and footsteps until the clock finally turned over and Blake rushed downstairs to announce that Santa had paid a visit.

As per tradition, we paraded down the stairs adorned in Santa hats and rang hand bells while singing Jingle Bells. Nash had some hat malfunctions.

Crew was not a happy camper to be woken up by his eager older brothers.

He closed his eyes in the middle of the parade just to shut out the ruckus.

It didn't take long for Crew to cheer up after some breakfast and being introduced to piles and piles of presents.

We were mean enough to make the kids wait until after breakfast to tear into their presents. We knew it would take a few hours to get through everything and the rest of us didn't want to be starving.

It made my heart soar when Blake took a break from his presents to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to Crew (a replacement for our torn up edition).

Nash was more than a little excited that Santa brought him a "Dragon Mountain" LEGO set.

I could hardly find people amidst the gift-giving commotion from up above.

Just like we predicted, it took hours to get through the presents. Finn crashed right in the middle of it all.

Troy's grandma joined us after we finished opening presents. It's always a special privilege to have Grandma around for a holiday since she has 13 children she rotates between. Finn smiled and flirted with his great-grandma all day long.

We woke up to a blanket of freshly fallen snow, so the boys were eager to get outside after spending a few hours with new toys.

The sledding hill in the backyard won't be exciting for long, but for now, it is perfect for our young children.

Blake was a snow die-hard and stayed outdoors well past the time the rest of us went in to build a snowman.

We topped off Christmas Day with another feast. The great-grandchildren gathered around Grandma before she headed off to the next relative's celebration.

Aside from throwing on snowpants and coats, we stayed in pajamas all day.  New games were played, new structures were built and the excitement was thick.

My favorite Christmas present of all was that Finn spent the whole night in my arms. He was a little fussy when I tried to get him to sleep which is unusual for him. I didn't want him to wake up Troy or Crew who were also in our room, so I took him out to the family room. We both finally ended up falling asleep on the couch and he spent hours sleeping soundly on my chest. It's getting more and more rare for him sleep curled up tightly against me, so I savored every minute. Merry Christmas indeed.