Holiday Wrap Up, Part IV: Christmas Morning.

Christmas morning... and apparently we were all on the Good List.

The kids dove in and it was a blast watching them open their gifts.

There were many trains and Imaginext stuff for Alec....

clothes, photobooks and calendars made with pictures of the kids for Dan...

Legos and tons of clothes for Michaela...

snowball makers and snow fort forms for everyone...

new supplies for playing school, clothes, and the new American Girl doll Caroline for Jenna...

and of course the stockings.  The stockings were all made by my Aunt Kathy and they are true treasures.  Unfortunately, Santa keeps sending Michaela Twizzlers in her stocking (interestingly enough, the Easter Bunny also puts Twizzlers in Michaela's Easter basket) and Michaela doesn't like Twizzlers.  I'm pretty sure that a big enough deal was made that Santa now knows that Michaela would just prefer the chocolate that everyone else gets.

After we got all ready, we drove down to Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Michele's house and spent a wonderful day relaxing with our family.  I was a little sad that my parents were away (and as it turns out, Christmas Day just wasn't a good day for them at the hospital, either) so I didn't take too many pictures.  But here are some of the Libutti kids opening their gifts:

Both Michaela and Jenna were thrilled to get Girl Scout Build-A-Bears from their aunts and uncles.

We did our traditional singing of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" with Uncle Michael as the five golden rings and Uncle Jimmy as the partridge in a pear tree. The kids go crazy for it and laugh the whole way through.
After a great dinner, we enjoyed some treats:

All in all, a lovely day.

I knew it was okay when Michaela turned to me halfway through opening presents that morning and said, "You know, Mom, I thought this Christmas was going to be kind of awful because of PopPop being sick and  things being different because they're not here.  But it turns out that it was a good Christmas after all."
And all the stress and worry and effort that went into the holiday was all worth it.