In Homer's Oddyssey, a common phrase is "rosy fingered dawn" as in "Now when the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, Telemachus rose and dressed himself" (Book II).
On Christmas morning, we were greeted with a rosy-fingered dawn, as we rose and dressed ourselves to meet the kids at the appointed time of 7:30 to start opening presents.
The first thing Simon said when we all came downstairs and he saw the presents was, "I got presents even though I was bad!" After ruminating a while, he concluded that "Santa must be nice and give everyone something. Or maybe he thinks everyone is good?" We don't really play up the Santa aspect of Christmas at home, but they still absorb a lot of ideas from the dominant culture.
I had a plan this year that the kids would open one present at a time, taking turns. Before one of them could open their presents, they had to clean up the wrapping paper trash from the previous child's present, because they would have the biggest incentive to do it quickly. My system worked really well. It slowed things down and we got to enjoy them opening each present.
The kids' school has a "holiday shop" where kids can bring money to school and buy cheap crap to give to their loved ones for Christmas. I gave the kids $5.00 each and told them they had to buy something for each other for Christmas, and they should bring it home and wait until Christmas. Well, Simon's class went on the first day, and in after school care he was so excited that he went ahead and gave Alice her gift (slime) which she promptly opened (see how well they follow my edicts?) and which she then left on the table in the cafeteria when she went to play in the gym and it was gone when she got back (of course). So much for that plan. But seeing how things went terribly awry, Alice did better when her class went the next day. She brought the gifts home and put them on the top of the book shelf in the study until Christmas. She got a lot of bang for her bucks: she got Simon a little magnetic board and she got me a beautiful ring.
Alice loves owls currently, so she got some owl ornaments.
Simon got a book about how houses are built.
Here are two airplanes, per his request to Santa.
Alice was pretty thrilled about the bag of Doritos.
They both liked their mermaid pillows (with reversible sequins).
Some inspiration for Simon's own creations...
Alice was happy to get her Beanie Boo Bat, what she requested from Santa.
No gift-giving occasion is complete without LEGOs.
Some silly wiggle worm things...
That look you make when you realize you just got a bag of teeth flossers for Christmas:
Tap shoes. Her joy is inversely proportional to ours.
Zac and I wrapped up stuff to pretend we got each other gifts, so it wouldn't just be the kids opening all the presents on Christmas. Here Zac is getting a new calendar.
And I got some dark chocolate Twix bars:
Simon got a squishimal (he always steals Alice's, so now he can have his own). They call hers "pink poof" so we named his "blue boof."
Simon is checking in with Grandpa about something.
The rubics cube turned out to be a big hit.
The magic eight ball confused them though. They struggled to only ask yes/no questions.
The Hatchimals mini-eggs were fun.
After all the presents were opened, we took a break for breakfast.
Then the kids opened their stockings.
Then the rest of the day was spent enjoying their new stuff.
No day is complete without at least one bike ride.
Here are a few videos from the day.
All in all, it was a wonderful and beautiful Christmas. It was fun to have Christmas morning in our own home for the first time ever. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
