Christmas Day!

Growing up, we had a tradition that on Christmas morning we all had to wait upstairs until everyone was ready before we could go downstairs to see what Santa brought. In all our growing up years, none of us kids EVER broke that tradition; we were discussing it this year, and we never, ever peeked to see what Santa brought.

In keeping with this tradition (and because we were sleeping in a room downstairs), on Christmas morning I told Katelee to close her eyes and I whisked her upstairs before she could see what Santa brought. When we got upstairs I told her she could open her eyes. What I didn't realize is that she thought I was taking her TO her presents. She was very disappointed to open her eyes to - nothing. Poor girl! Then she had to wait patiently for everyone to brush their teeth and meet upstairs, and then grandma was halfway through the dishes so we had to finish loading the dishwasher, etc. etc. It was torture, but she was very good, and finally we went downstairs to see what Santa brought.

Katelee waiting upstairs to see what Santa brought...

Gerald snuck downstairs before Katelee and got a picture of what Santa had left.

The first thing Katelee saw and went for was the Polly Pocket princesses Santa left. Katelee wanted these a lot, even though she already has about a million of them. Santa left her another Sleeping Beauty (I think she has 2 or 3 now), but she loves them! That's all she wanted to play with for awhile. Eventually she turned her attention to her stocking.When she realized there was some pretty good stuff in there, she wasted no time dumping it out! Jackpot!And she tried out the new SmartCycle Santa brought. She has had a lot of fun playing with this since, even if she wasn't exactly shouting with joy when she first saw it. :)
I think Santa spoiled this girl rotten - she must have been a good girl this year! ;)

After seeing the loot from Santa, we opened our other gifts. We all had a very nice Christmas. In addition to Santa's gifts, Gerald and I gave Katelee her box of dress-ups - but I'll save that story for another post. Then we made Christmas dinner. Later that day my Grandma Thurston and Grandma and Grandpa Klingler arrived for dinner. We had a delicious dinner of my mom's amazing cooking. After dinner, we went across the street to the high school football field to try flying the huge glider airplanes that Grandma and Grandpa Klingler gave all the boys. It was a lot of fun. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing games. Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas.