Our Christmas

Oh the Christmas post. This was our first year as a family to spend Christmas alone. We opted out of traveling this year, and since we our families both live in Idaho, we just had our own Christmas. It was kinda fun doing our own thing, but before we did it we had to argue over which family traditions we would adopt and make our own.
Christmas Eve we cleaned up the house especially well, (I did, anyway) because Santa doesn't come to a messy house. In the afternoon we started on the Christmas dinner. We made ham, funeral potatoes, asparagus with Hollandaise sauce, and rolls. Aaron invited a co-worker over who didn't have any other Christmas plans. We ate. We chatted. We had pecan pie and ice cream. Co-worker left. Then it was time to play games.
First we played a couple rounds of Yahtzee, because Morgan can play that one. (Sort of.) Then we played Jenga, because we thought Morgan would get a kick out of it. Then I decided it was time for the traditional Christmas Eve gift. This was a my family tradition, off and on, which I wanted to adopt.
First Morgan.
Then Daddy.
Then Mommy.
We all got pajamas. This tradition might not always include the parents, but this year pj's were needed (or wanted) for both of us too, and it turned out that we all got some.
We figured out how to use the timer on the camera, which we have never done, so we could get a family picture of all of us in our new pajamas.
Soon we sent Morgan to bed with the promise that Santa would come while he slept and leave something for him. Morgan was positive that it would be "cars and trains", like he'd been talking about all season. He was right.

So Aaron and I played Santa. In my family, Santa left one big gift for each person, and didn't wrap it. And he filled the stockings. Aaron agreed to run with this for our family too. So, while Morgan slept, we played Santa and got to play with Morgan's new train set before he did as we set it up. But in the midst of putting that together the power went out. Aaron found a flashlight and we continued. He prepared my stocking with the flashlight, but it came back on while I was doing his. Yay for power.
By now it wasn't even quite 10:00, so we stayed up watching tv for awhile, then went to bed.

I slept fitfully, as is another Christmas tradition for me, out of nothing but excitement about the next morning. Plus, I wanted to be sure I heard Morgan wake up. I didn't want him going into the living room without us. Everything worked out fine. Morgan woke up around 8:00, and we went to see what Santa brought. He was SOOO excited to see the train. We all looked through our stockings, then it was time to make the big traditional breakfast. This was the tradition that Aaron insisted on bringing from his family. Breakfast before presents. So we made french toast, sausage and bacon. I melted part of the microwave door with the griddle. We ate breakfast. Then we opened presents. Oh what fun. Morgan got way more than he needed, and enjoyed it all.

One of the things I got for Aaron was this flat cap. I think it suits him perfectly.
The rest of the next two days was spent playing with new toys, watching new movies, and eating junk food.
Morgan loves his train.

And we love him! And Christmas! We love Christmas too. :)