Christmas Day

We had a lovely day spent in our almost finished livingroom in our almost finished house. This is the scene, albeit blurry, of the day as it began. We slept in until after 10 which is a first for us as usually the girls are up and awake VERY early. Must be a sign of them getting older :( One of my favorite sounds is of them whispering in their shared room as they wait for us to awake on Christmas morn. That is actually what woke me up this day too. Farmer Girl had crawled into The Scribbler's bed in our pop-up camper where we all asleep. I had been up until 2 AM wrapping gifts so I had good reason to be asleep! One of these days I will learn to do the wrapping ahead of time. I didn't think it would take so long because there weren't many. However, I had spent the last few months tucking things back in preparation and had more than I thought.....So, we got up and I baked our traditional French Toast casserole. The girls did their animal chores like walk the dog and feed the chickens and goats. Bob headed over to start a fire and place the gifts under the tree. Below is the scene that greeted me on my arrival with food and coffee in hand. On Christmas Eve the girls had brought in a load of firewood and removed the floor paper in this half of the room, sweeping up the drywall dust. Bob and I placed the new rug down in front of the tree. He decided to place the new cabinets in this almost finished room too. Remember the deal I told you about? Aren't they pretty? This one worked great as a buffet table and the other as our music playing station in the corner to the left. See the sun streaming in? It was a lovely bright day with not a cloud in the sky. It was a glorious morning.
This is Bob unwrapping his gift from Farmer Girl. She had great fun using up packing paper and LOTS of tape to take what was a small gift and shape into something large and difficult to unwrap. It kind of looked like a machine gun when it was completely wrapped but I missed getting a picture of it. This leather chair is one of a pair of matching ones given to us by previous neighbors. They are quite comfortable as they recline back and have a foot stool.
Bob displaying what was under all the wrap-a tootsie roll!

The girls began unwrapping with their stockings. They both received their traditional orange, a candy cane, a BPA Free water bottle and earrings. Their other gifts were mostly necessities like socks and tights as well as some family DVD's and Adventures in Odysseys. The Scribbler also received some CD's-WOW 2010, Phantom of the Opera, and Fiddler on the Roof. Farmer Girl was delighted with some new clothes and a Playmobil set-The Coliseum. It will go well with her chariots. I am just delighted she still likes to play with Playmobil. I think children in our culture grow up entirely too fast and I love that she still plays with her American Girl dolls and Playmobil. Both of them require imagination which is lacking with electronic devices that entertain instead. It has been hard for her to play with them due to our lack of space, but I am hoping once we are in the house that she won't have gotten too old. :) Here they are below figuring out the set-up. They played wonderfully well together today. It isn't always like that............
Griffin spent the morning with us too, enjoying his HUMONGOUS bone on his dog bed. It kept him amused for hours! Bill and I chose not to exchange gifts but to save up for a new couch although we did each get some small things for each other like Get Smart DVD's, calendars and socks. I LOVE socks especially colorful ones and knee socks. They keep my feet and calves so warm!
After clean up and some playing, the girls watched one of the family DVD's back in the garage house while Bob made his traditional yeast rolls he only makes twice a year. (they watched Saving Sarah Cain which makes me cry every time) We both made some phone calls to family while relaxing in front of the fire too. I had hoped for some time to play games and take a walk, BUT alas getting up so late really limits your daylight hours. Before i knew it, it was time for dinner preparation, eating ham, scalloped potatoes, broccoli and caesar salad and then clean up. In the evening we were able to spend some additional time in front of the fire by the tree, Farmer Girl playing with Playmobil and The Scribbler drawing. It was quite peaceful and a lovely ending to a wonderful day. I even fell asleep in the chair whilst listening to them play and chatter excitedly. Oh, lest I forget, their big gifts were another reason we were up so late. They both received new beds for their new rooms. Bob and I stayed up to put them together. I had wanted to set them up with their new comforters and pillows on them. We did that in Farmer Girl's room, but, unfortunately the rails for The Scribbler's bed were not the right ones so she didn't get the same effect. She was equally delighted though. It was a disappointment for us but she didn't mind. She was just too excited that she got the bed she wanted. The rails will arrive next Saturday.
It was a wonderfully relaxing day and just what we all needed to rejuvenate and prepare for the final haul on the house.
We pray you all had a blessed day celebrating our Savior's birth too!
God bless, Ellie~