No Surprises

Dominick and I have never waited for Christmas Day to open our Christmas presents. We do get our presents from Santa and our stocking Christmas morning. However the gifts to each other and the kids never make it. We are always too excited to wait. This year I was thinking we might just make it and then Nicholas' gift came via UPS.

The kids were home from school but they were in the other room when it came. Dominick quickly hid it in our room and closed the door. Then about an hour later Nicholas got to open it up. Dominick was just too excited about giving it to him. Nicholas loved his new Red Rider BB gun. We set up some targets in our backyard and we all went outside (after the whole safety talk and lesson) and had a great time shooting at the targets.

A few days later the FedEx truck came with Trinity's gift. I waited until Saturday to give it to her so we could watch her open it as a family. She got a microscope. She has wanted one for a long time. I researched and found one with good reviews in our price range. It's perfect for her. It's pretty durable but not babyish and she can adjust things by herself pretty easily. When she opened it up she wanted to take it all out and look at it. As a family we took turns looking a different slides that came with it. Then we found things around the house to look at. It was very fun.

Yesterday I took the kids with me to the grocery store. They both had a few dollars of their own money with them. Together they decided to buy Dominick a Christmas gift with their money. Where did they go? They headed straight to the candy isle and picked out a few of his favorites. I told them not to tell what they bought and that we wrap them up and put them under the tree for Christmas. We got home, unpacked the groceries and hid the candy so we could wrap it after Dominick left for work. However as soon as Nicholas saw Dominick he said "Daddy we bought you candy for Christmas it's up there in the cupboard."

We have found that opening the gifts a little early one at a time is fun for everyone. You get a gift, the family is excited and you spend time playing/using that gift before you get another one. Where as when you get a pile of gifts all at once it can be overwhelming. Maybe that is just my excuse for not being able to wait until Christmas =)