Merry Christmas!

Growing up, Mom would finally just about have enough on Christmas morning and have to come wake us up at 8am so that we could get Christmas morning going. We'd all then get up and we knew the drill. 

We couldn't go near the tree or our stockings, not even to peek, until we were dressed, had any chores done Mom and Dad wanted (genius! We'd sweep floors, pull weeds, wash windows, whatever!), and then we all had to eat breakfast together (and of course then clean it up) before we'd gather around the tree. 

Dad would then hand out presents one by one. We all giggled when he'd "mix up" the names and read our presents as "To: Santa! From: Marquette!" Christmas morning would stretch out as we sat as a family, playing, visiting, singing, calling Grandparents, and finally remembering we had stockings. 

I love the memories of our Christmas mornings growing up. I'm so excited to have Darrow getting old enough to get into the hype of Christmas!

And get into the hype he did. We're spending Christmas with my parents and family this year. This morning, at 4:45am, Darrow woke up, quietly opened the door, crawled downstairs, and sat on the bottom step and sat and talked to himself until Grandma heard him and got up. I finally heard him at around 6:15 and realized he wasn't upstairs, but Cameron and I both were. I flew downstairs to discover him and Grandma sitting and snuggling. Apparently this kid didn't get the sleep in on Christmas morning genes, bahaha! We sat and visited, looked at the Christmas tree lights, and snuggled until everyone else woke up around 7:15ish. 

We're all still working on chores, making breakfast, and even pulled Grandpa out of bed (amid many grunts from Darrow...it was hard work). And I wouldn't trade it at all. I love Christmas morning and I'm so grateful for the blessing of being with family. Here in a few days we'll get to go spend time with Cameron's family and that'll just be the topping on the cake for this break. We hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas Day full of joy and love!

Merry Christmas!!