Here are some excerpts from the morning:
After getting dressed quite quickly, Alice broke off the last chain, and we headed out to the living room.
This was the first year I had so much fun picking presents, because Alice is developing actual interests in things, so we can pick toys that reflect those interests. Before this, we would often pick toys that she would probably like, and that we knew we would like playing with her, but that weren't really specific to her personality or interests. For example, the airplane we got her is one that you build and take apart using a power drill, reflecting her strong desire to be allowed to use tools. The sharks, snake, and solar system are all things she's gotten interested in through a lesson at school or books.
Simon wasn't so good at opening presents and once a significant amount of clutter had built up, he couldn't really focus on one thing. When we were cleaning up, we even found one of his presents unopened. I remember this happening with Alice when she was younger: she would open one present and want to play with it and we'd have to coax her into opening the others. She's a lot different now!
Alice loves juice. But she only gets juice at parties or when she has hand, foot and mouth disease (which she remembers fondly because she got to drink juice and watch videos all day). So Santa brought her two juice boxes in her stocking. She ate one with breakfast (which per our tradition where canister cinnamon rolls). She didn't even eat much of the roll--mostly just the icing off the top.
I wanted to find her a stuffed deer so that she could run over it, like in the story, but I couldn't find a normal deer. I also couldn't find Rudolph. But I found this green one with a pink nose, and Alice calls it Rudolph (although she does wonder why the nose is pink and not red). Whenever I ask her if Rudolph is going to get run over and fed to the tigers, she says, "No, Rudolph flies up in the sky." I guess that's why this biplane hit him.
