Merry Christmas!

Remember my calm peaceful pics from last night. . .? 

Our first wake-up call came at 5:30 this morning - a whispering silhoutte of a Charlie Brown head about 2 inches from my face. The next wake-up call came at 6:00, informing me that Merritt needed a diaper change. I could not hear Merritt, thus I sent the informant back to bed. At 6:30 we gave up and headed to the coffee pot. Let the upwrapping begin.

Merritt surprised us by being completely disinterested in ripping open presents - even Gavin's! The following 2 pictures were as close as we got.

He did enjoy his little animals from Santa.

Gavin was definitely into ripping open presents, and did so with gusto, 

which he does most things with.

Here he is opening his laptop from Grandma and Grandpa Bud (notice Merritt stripping the Christmas tree in the background - the tree I redecorated last night after they went to bed so it would look good in the pictures?).

The smile says it all.

Santa understands Gavin's obsession with legos, and went all out this year. I think Santa underestimated Gavin's lego assembly stamina, though, as Gav has already built 5 of the 6 sets he received (it isn't even 2:00 pm yet. . .).

Sweet happy mess.

The boys worked hard at getting the packages open and ready for assembly. . .

. . .while I worked hard at resisting Arlo's offer to take a nap (I failed to resist the temptation).

We enjoyed visits from great friends this morning already and we look forward to treating our cul-de-sac friends with a little party tonight (complete with seafood bisque!). With the windows open, the sun shining, and plenty to be thankful for, we plan to relax and rock the day away with some Christmas tunes. 

We love and miss all you who we cannot be with, and we wish we were together (here in the warmth, of course. . .), but we take joy in knowing that we have so many we love near and far. Have yourself a merry little Christmas!