Well, this Christmas was quite a bit more exciting than last Christmas was. And it lasted a whole lot longer too. Christmas Eve was very low key until we went to church at 5:00. Evie did pretty good for her first time sitting through a service--awake. We came prepared with snacks, books not normally available to her (she tears them up) and Kitty, her favorite stuffed animal. Should've known the circle of paper that goes around the candle for the end of the service would be enough to entertain her almost the whole time. Well, that and the baby who was sitting in his car seat in the row ahead of us. She grabbed onto the handle a few times and gave him a few shakes. He has two older brothers, so I'm sure he's used to it.
After we got home from church we ate supper really quick and then started opening presents. Evie had a huge pile and we knew if we didn't start opening on Christmas Eve we'd never get finished on Christmas Day. Thank goodness we did. She opened many new toys and lots of clothes, but the present that got the biggest (and best, for us) reaction was this huge 5' Santa decoration my mom made. She started it about 20 years ago and hated making it so much she quit and put it under the bed. Where it stayed--til this winter. She didn't enjoy making it any more than she did the first time around, but at least it's done. She was feeling pretty crafty since finding and becoming obsessed with Pinterest, I guess it was time for Santa to make his exit from the Johnson house. Anyway...Evie was scared of it and it was pretty funny. We originally had it sitting on the couch and she came pretty close to the terrified screams she gave when she saw the "real" Santa. Eventually we hung it up on the entertainment center and she was still leery of it, but got used to it being there. The next day she didn't have a problem with it at all and would wave at it.
Christmas morning we "opened" our stockings and started opening presents. And we opened presents until 3pm, with a few naps and breaks for breakfast and lunch thrown in. Next year, even with the same amount of gifts, it won't take this long because she'll be an experienced present opener! This year present opening required quite a bit of direction. But, it was a good time, nonetheless.
Evie has been enjoying all of her new toys, but probably not as much as we have been enjoying watching her play with them and figure them out. I still find it so amazing that just last Christmas she had slept for hours and hours and hours. And, although that does sound appealing at times (ha!), it's so much more fun now! It was a very merry Christmas.
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