Merry Christmas!

 

This was the best group picture we could manage this year.

Merry Christmas, everyone! This was a very eventful Christmas, to say the least. 

On Monday, William was born, and about 22 hours later we were home again, in time to enjoy Christmas Eve.

Now that I have kids, Christmas Eve is my favorite part of the holiday - stuffing stockings, assembling and setting out the toys from Santa, and prepping cinnamon rolls to bake in the morning (though this year we skipped the baking). 

This year William slept in a basket by the fire while Dev and I set up the kids' Santa presents.

The next morning we got the kids up around 9am for breakfast.  Dev asked Beatrice, "Do you know what today is?"

"Wednesday!" she answered.  "It's a school day!"

Once we reminded her that it was Christmas, we all had some breakfast before heading to the "North Pole," as Beatrice calls our back room.

At breakfast, Dev joked with the kids, "Do you think you were good enough this year to get gifts from Santa?"

Beatrice said seriously, but not too sadly, "So Santa didn't come? The present room is relatively close to our bedroom so Santa heard us in there being bad and didn't come."

But he did come, and we spent the morning opening presents.

First, the stockings:

Arthur's stocking

B's stocking

Then the gifts:

   

 

 

 

Cromwell enjoyed his stuffed bagel.

Beatrice loved her dollhouse from Santa - I was also gratified (and a little surprised) by how much she loved the Metropolitan Opera diorama play set that I got her.

 

Yes, I bought the matching dollhouse chicken coop.

 

Arthur loved his train table, and everything else, but his favorite may have been the play money set we got him. 

 

Dev made me this awesome mechanical clockwork heart:

And I got Dev a meat smoker - now he can learn from James how to make amazing brisket and smoked salmon.

We tried to take a group picture, with limited success.

 

After the presents were all unwrapped, the kids had some lunch and then all of us took a nap.  Dev and I cleaned up the piles of wrapping paper and then made dinner: grilled lamb chops, mashed potatoes, biscuits, corn, peas, and a kale Brussels sprouts salad, with cherry pie for dessert.  William sat around, getting used to the feeling of being a day and a half old.

 

The kids played with their toys a little more, watched some Christmas movies, and then off to bed - and so ended our quiet Christmas at home.  We were all sorry to miss the big Kumar family gathering happening right now in Dallas, but all in all, it was still a pretty nice day.