Christmas Day 2019...

Fortunately, none of our family felt the need to be up an a really early hour to open presents. I got up and took those lovely cinnamon rolls out to thaw and rise for breakfast. When Raelyn and Emelia woke up Katelyn got them downstairs with the Marx family. No one comes up to open gifts until we get the family picture on the stairs. This year someone was clever and got a picture of me trying to get the stairs picture. This is probably the first year I am anywhere near being in this picture!

Katelyn then took Raelyn out to see that Santa and the reindeer enjoyed their treats.

Time to open presents. This year Hayden and Bailey helped pass out gifts. Here are a few of my favorite moments.

A year ago Bailey fell in love with my M&M pajama pants. In February when Claude and I went to Las Vegas we visited the M&M store where I got my pair of M&M pajama pants. They had them again and we got me a new pair to replace the first pair. We also got this pair for Bailey. Great fun to give these to her.

We got Andie some self-inking stamps with things that teachers have to write a billion times. Hayden let her stamp the side of his face with one. 

This was a fun gift for each of the Mini's. Street signs with their names on it.  

Raelyn got this fun mat with roads and buildings for Princesses. She also got a box with 5 or 6 Princess dolls to play with on the mat. The mat was rolled out and stayed on the living room floor until the Ropers left for Michigan.  

This was my gift to Claude. There are two young girls in Oldham County, Kentucky who started this project with the support of their parents. They make these 'Be Kind' signs and ask that you make a donation to some organization to receive the sign. You find these signs in yards all over Oldham County. Claude noticed them on one of our visits to the Marx family who live in Oldham County. He really liked them. I researched and found out the story behind them, then worked to get one for Claude. The Marx family picked it up at Thanksgiving time and brought it to me and secreted it in my sewing room closet. Claude was so happy to get it for Christmas. It now is in our front yard by our mail box.  

Katelyn found an apron on Pinterest that she really loved. It was made out of a man's shirt.  She wanted me to make her one. I saved the pattern and asked Claude to give me one of his shirts. Then I realized this might be something others in our family would like. Andie always wears an apron when she cooks. So Claude gave me enough shirts for Nissa, Andie, Katelyn, Aubrey and Bailey. I contributed a shirt of mine for Raelyn. I made all of these for Christmas presents this year. The first picture is the first one I made. The second picture is the girls opening their aprons on Christmas morning.  

This was a very fun gift. Andie and the Mini's gave Michael a treasure hunt for his gift. They had clues on paper and he had to read the clue and go to the place indicated in the clue to find the next clue. The gift was a scavenger hunt in Louisville as a family.  

Claude got me a beautiful silver turtle bracelet. His choice of wrapping paper gave me chuckles. We eat at Jimmy John's frequently. This is the wrapper from my sandwich. I always order a Slim 3 with Cheese. When we are finished I always go refill my beverage to take with me and Claude disposes of the trash. He must of saved this wrapper from my sandwich to wrap my gift in. Such fun.

Part of the fun of Christmas day is thanking the people who gave you gifts. In the digital age, you can see they enjoyed the items you so thoughtfully gave. We got Nissa a stone for her garden and a new garden flag that has a map of Michigan with their last name on it.

Jake gave us a Star Wars Christmas card with money in it for a date to see the new Star Wars movie. We have enjoyed Star Wars since the very first one (which is really the 4th one) came out when our kids were little. We stood in line around the theater the entire length of the previous movie to get tickets and seats for our family. This was a welcome and very thoughtful gift. 

After opening the gifts, the cinnamon rolls were out of the oven and we had a sweet breakfast together. Thank you Coyne's.

Claude took Katelyn and Drew downstairs. He had a project he created for them. It is a shoe shelf to go close to their front door. They put their shoes in it before going into their apartment and later their home. Katelyn got to pick out whether to paint it or stain it. Katelyn has chosen stain. Claude has backing for it as well. Now he can finish the project.

I got a turtle blanket. I also purchase reindeer ears for each of our grand and great grandmonsters. I wanted a picture of my little dears in my turtle blanket. Raelyn was crying. This is fine. It is just a moment in time. 

In the afternoon I went into Georgetown and picked up Papa. He would spend the afternoon with us watching all those little people play. Papa enjoyed watching the family but by the next day he didn't even remember he came unless I reminded him while we talked. We really are filling only his immediate moments. How important that is. 

While I took Papa back to the nursing home, Claude and Emelia had another moment. So thankful for other people taking pictures. These are so sweet.

In the evening we did 'the puzzle'. This was a tradition with my mother when I was a child. I really like to get a challenging puzzle. This year I didn't do that. I picked a puzzle with a picture because Michael likes to do that type of a puzzle and the puzzle had only 550 pieces. I really like 1000 or more pieces. But I didn't want the entire rest of our visit to be spent at the table making a puzzle. We set to work and finished this puzzle in one evening. Yeah us! 

It was a full, family Christmas day.