Reading: A Christmas Carol, which I finished today. I never get tired of re-reading this classic.

Watching: The Prince of Egypt and The Iron Giant, videos the boys received as Christmas presents today.

Christmas Day

The boys awoke at the not-too-unbearable hour of 7 o'clock this morning. The twins had peeked downstairs ("Guess what, Daniel? There are a lot of presents down there!"), but they had remembered our warning not to go down without us. All three boys piled into bed with us while Tab and I slowly came to life, then they waited obediently on the steps until we gave them the OK to proceed downstairs.

It was fun watching them open their gifts. They seemed genuinely excited by everything they received. Daniel was especially thrilled that he received the wheel-shaped Hot Wheels car carrier that he'd asked from Santa. "He knew what I meant!" Daniel exclaimed after ripping open the paper. Stephen and Matthew loved their Duplo sets and the Brio train stuff they received.

We had the boys take turns opening gifts rather than allowing them to engage in a free-for-all. Still, we managed to work our way through a sizable pile of presents in less than an hour. I sighed when Tab carried out yet another huge garbage bag of wrapping paper. "It took hours to wrap all those gifts, but only 45 minutes to unwrap them," I said to Tab in the kitchen while the boys were playing with their toys.

Back when I was young, I wanted to keep my Christmas gifts under the tree after I'd unwrapped them. I liked seeing them all piled up there in a heap. My mother, however, always wanted us to put our new things away as soon as possible. Surveying the untidy array of boxes, I understand her point of view now. "Let's put your Brio stuff in the Brio box, OK, guys?" Fortunately, they were cooperative. They even helped dump the Duplo blocks into the Duplo container.

Tab gave me a number of lovely gifts including two butterfly pins, a beautiful blue glass pin, and two Loreena McKennitt CDs. My favorite presents from him were several Kama Sutra products: honey almond massage cream and Honey Dust, a body powder with the most bewitching scent (and delicious taste!). This stuff is amazing. The packaging is beautiful, too.

This afternoon, Stephen and Matthew were clamoring to watch The Iron Giant, one of their Christmas gifts, but I wanted Tab to watch it with us. I had taken the three guys to see it at the theater last September and we loved it. Tab hadn't seen it yet, however, and I wanted him to watch the whole movie from beginning to end rather than in bits and pieces.

So after dinner, we all sat down and watched the movie together, which is something we rarely do. In fact, I can't remember the last time I sat on the couch to watch TV. Usually, I'm at the computer, working. I thought The Iron Giant was just as good the second time around. Once again, I cried a little at the end.

All in all, it was a lovely Christmas. The only flaw in the day is that Daniel has become ill. He didn't want to eat breakfast this morning, which I attributed at first to excitement. Later, I was giving him a hug and realized he was extremely warm. When I checked his temperature, I discovered he had a fever of over 103 degrees. Fortunately, his temperature came down with a dose of children's ibuprofen. He's been coughing a lot, too. I hope the others don't get whatever he has.

previous       index       e-mail me       next