Merry Christmas!

 Today we had a nice Christmas morning at home. We woke up and ate breakfast and then opened presents.

I tried to keep things very reasonable this year and did two toys per kid, plus a book and Christmas ornament and then stockings (which are candy and then things I would buy them anyway like new crayons and toothbrushes so not really super gifty). It sounded very manageable, but it was so much stuff when combined with the gifts we got from others. Maybe next year we'll go to one toy each. Especially since at some point they will have their own wants and I imagine the price of the toy might go up. I thought this year might be that year for Joshua and we'd have to make a big decision about whether to do Santa or not and he would be excited about gifts. But he really wasn't. He was really excited about candy and he enjoyed his toys and unwrapping, but he doesn't know you can ask for things and he doesn't get the concept that if other people have a toy that he likes, he could have one of his own or anything like that. He has recently figured out that sometimes we can get treats in the checkout aisle, but he still totally accepts it if I say it's not ours and we can't have it. I am sure that won't last. I expect that next year he will be more demanding as well as Clara because she is very advanced when it comes to understanding these types of things. Which is totally normal, so I understand it, but I will be a bit saddened as well when our days of being super excited about a handful of m&ms will be over.

In addition to their normal gifts, I also make them something each year. My original plan was hats for Joshua because he loves hats and capes and berets for the girls. I stuck with the capes and berets for the girls, which are super cute, though I would change the way I did the berets if I were to make them again. And then for Joshua I switched to a new blanket. He really loved the minky blanket I made for Clara for her birthday so I made one for him for Christmas in grey. He seemed happy and repeatedly said, "Only for Joshua, not for Clara" when he opened it. 

We had a really nice day and then after naps we had a yummy dinner of sauerbraten (pot roast with a vinegary type gravy).