Matt preparing the turkey.
Check out the spread.
Trent loves "Thanksgiving food" and he cleaned his plate
Trent and Jack love their Pop.
We enjoyed the food and company, but then it was time to start preparing for Santa. This year I sent the ingredients for reindeer food to Trent's school for his class to make it. Trent took his ziploc bag of food outside and threw it in the yard for Rudolph and his friends. You can tell that it wasn't very cold this Christmas Eve by the flip flops. :)
Trent feeding the reindeer
Then we went inside, and Trent started to make Santa's plate of goodies. It took me awhile to convince Trent that Santa eats at every house and we didn't have to leave him a whole meal. He finally settled on three cookies.
The two frosted ones were made by Trent and his Nana.
I talked to Trent about writing a letter to Santa around Thanksgiving, but we never got around to doing it. Well, Trent did NOT forget about that conversation. He wanted to write a letter to Santa. I told him that Santa was already on his way, but Trent kept on and on. He is hard-headed like his Daddy. :) We finally compromised and he wrote Santa a thank-you note. Here is a picture of his great work.
I just told him how to spell the words. He did all of the writing by himself. Pretty good for 4, huh?
It is a Gatewood family tradition to open all of the presents on Christmas Eve and only have Santa stuff on Christmas Day. Well, my family (the Trents) do everything on Christmas Day. Matt decided to try and pressure me into opening early this year, and he got Trent in on the pressure. I finally compromised and said we could each open one gift on Christmas Eve. This made Trent happy, so all was well.
Trent and Jack posed in front of the tree before we opened the presents.
Trent got a cool guy named Joey. He is magnetic and you can change his clothes like paper dolls. Trent loved dressing him as the police man and the super hero.
Here is Trent with "Joey"
After we did the presents, we tried to get the kids settled into bed. BUT, before we got them settled, Trent reminded me that we had to read the Christmas story. I was so proud of him for remembering. I got my Bible, and I read the real Christmas story aloud to the whole family.
Then we tucked Jack and Trent into their beds.
Jack cuddled up with Barney and his Lovey (from Madison, Susan, and Mark)
I remember always being so excited at Christmas that I couldn't sleep that night, but that didn't seem to be a problem for my boys. Trent didn't wake up until after 8AM, and we had to wake up Jack. I had hoped to get a picture of Trent's first reactions to his presents, but he came in and woke us up to say Santa had come.
Here is the spread that Santa left
Jack liked everything that Santa left for him.
Trent was scared to open the Wrestling box that he got from Santa. I had to go over and open it. Once he saw what was in the box, he couldn't stop talking about it.
We all got up and watched to boys play with their Santa stuff for awhile, and then it was time open all of the other gifts.
Jack liked the bows, and Trent enjoyed opening both his and Jack's presents.
Brodie loves squeaky toys and tissue paper. He had a ball opening his presents and playing on Christmas Day.
Santa brought Brodie an armadillo toy.
This year Matt and I got my blog published into a book. I uploaded my blog to blurb.com and it turned out great. Here is Fran's reaction to the book. (Sorry Fran, I have to show both sets of parents and their reactions.)
Nana loved the book.
We had to take several breaks to clean up all of the wrapping paper and tissue paper messes. The boys got lots of cool presents. They were super excited.
Jack got a Radio Flyer rocket from Nana and Pop.
Uncle Scott got Trent a Nerf gun, and Trent LOVED it.
Thanks Scott for beating out Santa again. (Just kidding.) Trent lined up all of the wrestlers he got and shot them with his new gun. He had a blast.
It was hilarious to watch him stand up all of the wrestlers and start firing on them.
We ate leftovers and lazed around the whole day.
At some point we couldn't find Jack. He was in his room playing with all of his loot. :)
Scott stuck around to watch a movie before he headed home to Illinois. Nana and Pop headed home late in the afternoon too. We had a wonderful family Christmas!
Side note: At some point during the festivities, I noticed Rudolph and Trent's nativity set (or "God Stuff") by the fireplace. They looked like they had been put in time-out. Don't you think so?
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