the morning of christmas… 2011

Christmas morning started out with running down the stairs, the opening of stockings and the general complete awe that erupts from an almost-2 year old who had no idea that there was a day devoted to getting all sorts of random presents at one time.

So after Miss L had exhausted her stocking and we told her that it was time to visit the Christmas tree and open more presents… this is the reaction we got.

Can’t you just see the indignant, “no! I don’t wanna!” look in that little floor laying exercise right there? We sort of cherished the idea that she had opened enough presents and was exhausted by a stocking… because you know it’d be the last time in her life she didn’t want to go rip open wrapping paper and see what is under all the glittery paper.

We did our best to coax her in to open at least one present…

… and suddenly she started to understand a little bit more…

… but when she tried to run away yet again, we brought in “her chair” for her to sit in and that made the chaotic situation of boxes and paper and people and new things a bit more controlled and happy.

And then we got some gems of reactions from her!

Like this one… when she found a brand new wool J. Crew fedora in her bag!

But after a bit, Christmas just started to look like normal. Presents opening. People smiling and giving thanks and lots of gratitude filling the air.

Miss L started to play with some of the toys she got to open… (I’ve yet to successfully catch her awesome Alice and Wonderland voices when she plays with these figures, but her Queen of Hearts is quite wonderful)

… made silly faces when she didn’t quite understand the gift she was getting…

… and posed for cute smiles when given the chance as well.

And while most of her packages were small and easy for her to open, we did give her one giant box with every single type of wrapping paper we had to make for an exciting upwrapping experience!

And after it was all over, we sat down for brunch (chocolate & bacon pancakes!), cleaned up all the boxes and paper, and started playing with all of our goodies.

So what did Santa bring Miss L this year?

Well… he brought Miss L a drawing table with a seemingly-endless supply of butcher paper to draw on… and through the grandparent grapevine, he got her TWO of her very own houses! (She is constantly reminding us that she has multiple houses as compared our single one)

And with that… Christmas morning came to a close with a nap for almost everyone and barely any snacks as we awaited our second feast of the holiday that night!