christmas morning!

Christmas morning with kids is so much fun. Amelia came into our room around 7:30 and was giddy with excitement. Whenever she gets excited she doesn't stop talking. She said she had been awake for a long time and was laying in her bed, waiting for it to get light outside. I was fine with that.

After going through the Santa piles, we unwrapped gifts under the tree and then had a big breakfast of German pancakes, sausage, and bacon. We went to church in the afternoon and then spent the rest of the day doing puzzles, playing games, checking out new toys, and eating.

Santa piles...pre-destruction.

Oliver's Santa stuff.

Exploring their craft totes from Grandma and Grandpa Black.

Elsa was SO thrilled with every present she opened, usually proclaiming "This is what I always wanted!"

Animal blankets from Grandma and Grandpa Olsen.

"Please, no photos. I'm sick."

This tent was a big hit. Pretty much ALL of the new toys eventually ended up inside.

Post-Christmas carnage!

My surprise from Ben!

Ben's surprise from me. It was no easy task to find a place to hide this giant/heavy thing.

Yummy German pancakes for breakfast.

Elsa's favorite Santa gift by far...she is on this thing all. day. long.

   

 



Amelia's initial reaction to her pile of Santa presents was pretty funny (see video below). I think she was a bit overwhelmed at first but eventually started noticing everything and getting really excited. Elsa also took a minute to figure out what was hers. Everyone had fun exploring their new toys (and we spent the next two days getting everything out of that pesky plastic).

The second video shows Amelia's reaction to what I knew would be a very exciting gift for her...a new Thea Stilton book. Amelia LOVES Thea Stilton books and has read every one (she says she has "hearts in her eyes for Thea Stilton"). I found out that a new one had been released right before Christmas. We always get them from the library and I knew she would be thrilled with her very own copy.

christmas eve: dinner + nativity

We had the traditional Olsen Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve (although we forgot to wear our Christmas bibs). Stuffed hard rolls (they taste better than they sound), jello (originally an elaborate three-layer deal but nobody ate it but me so we simplified to jello jigglers in Christmas shapes), chips and dip, veggies and dip, wassail, and eggnog. I love this dinner because it just tastes like Christmas (plus it's easy to make and can all be prepared ahead of time). Aside from the veggies and chips, it's food we only have at Christmas so it feels special. And reminds me of my childhood Christmases.

 

After dinner we acted out the Nativity. We have a great script that my mom created years ago, complete with a choral reading. There was some debate in the beginning about who would be Mary but in the end Elsa was Mary, Oliver was a wandering Joseph, and Amelia was the angel, a sheep, a wise man, and an inn keeper. Elsa delivered one memorable line during the nativity: "I can't fit baby Jesus in my mouth. How am I supposed to swallow him?" Um, that would be swaddle, Elsa.

 Next up was chocolate fondue! (Another tradition from my family.) 

 

The kids got to open new pajamas and then we read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Oliver went to bed and the girls got cookies ready for Santa and wrote him a note. They spent a LOT of time making thank you notes for Santa...I don't think they wanted to go to bed. After all the kids were finally in bed, Ben and I watched It's a Wonderful Life and amazingly, I didn't fall asleep.

christmas eve: pizza + zoo

We did the traditional Black family zoo and pizza outing on Christmas Eve. We had lunch at Comet Ping Pong in D.C. We hadn't been in a few years and it was a great place to take the kids. They loved playing ping pong and foosball while we waited for our yummy pizza. We spent the rest of the afternoon at a very uncrowded zoo. We started at the top, which we rarely do, and saw a lot of animals that we never see (we're usually lucky if we make it far enough up the hill to see the pandas). It felt like we were at a new zoo. We saw the gazelles and the cheetahs. We spent a lot of time in the bird house. I actually think it might have been our first time going in the bird house. There were some beautiful birds. We also saw the pandas and the red pandas and spent some time watching the otters. We ended with a stop in the small mammal house where we found a psychotic armadillo (see video below).

I have never seen an armadillo with so much energy. We all found this very amusing: