Christmas morning came early, as it always does with our kids, and they were quite concerned that Santa may not have actually come this year. After all, he didn't come to Nani and Pops' house (in past years he has made a stop at both places, but that just got to be too much for him and he cut it down to one place). And in keeping with the tradition started by Matt's family, the kids all sat on the steps together while Matt and I checked to make sure that Santa did in fact come (as well as getting the much-needed coffee started). They then made the rounds to wake up Grammy, Papa, Uncle Ty, Auntie Cam and Aunt Mollie. And then--finally--they were able to run in and see what Santa brought.
(I love Blake and Sadie's faces in the background here, even before they could see what they got. Just knowing there was a surprise waiting for them was exciting enough!)
And then the reaction when they actually saw their gifts!!
The kids had been wanting these 'air-brushed' hats that are sold at every single hockey tournament we go to (no joke), so Santa made their day with one for each of them.
(Sadie's has a gymnast on it)
Loving his Zach Parise jersey
…so now we've got the defenseman and forward in our house (and of course, they both fit their own personalities)
..getting his own headphones for car trips (orange--what else would you expect)
..and after the gifts were all handed out and piled in front of each person and the monkey bread was finishing in the oven, someone was already tired…..
And then the gift opening began…….Blake got a set of college mini-helmets (Big Ten conference)
..and spent much of the morning 'versing' them (that's what Blake calls it when two teams go against each other--instead of one versus another--he refers to it as a verb--"versing")
Wyatt got an NFL set of mini-helmets
And Sadie got a pair of 'dangly' earrings from Auntie Cam and Aunt Mollie
showing off their matching earrings
More lining up and arranging the helmets
Matt's parent's surprised us all with our own Kindle Fires (the adults) and everyone was so surprised and shocked that the gift opening took a significant break and everyone was checking them out.
So while there was no end in sight to the break in opening gifts, Sadie decided to take a few drink and food orders and start serving everyone….
She positioned herself at her serving station and proceeded from there….
Blake wanted in on the action and became her helper
As a quick side note, Sadie loves all the details that go into setting a beautiful table, place cards, napkins, individual serving pieces, etc----when it's her turn to set the table at home, she puts lots of time and effort into making each person's table setting 'look pretty'. In fact, just last week she went into Home Goods with me and said, "Mom, this story is the best store ever. Everything is so beautiful" and proceeded to pick up almost everything she saw and show me how wonderful it would look in our home and how much more beautiful it would make everything. This girl definitely has the gift of seeing beauty and adding beauty to everything she touches. (And I'm quite sure she got this from her Grammy, not me:)
And while Sadie was serving and beautifying, there was more lining up of helmets in different ways….
…more 'versing'...
and pointing out which team is the best (with Uncle Ty wearing one of Grandad's hats--each grandkid got one of them this Christmas but unfortunately Grandad had a small head and all the Sorensens have big ones!)
Back to opening gifts…Sadie got a Rainbow Loom (and things in our house haven't been the same ever since)…she loves making the bracelets and was quite sure she was the only girl she knew who didn't have one!
(Mostly because when the craze started a few mos. prior, I refused to just run to the store and buy her one, even though they were only like $10. No, she needed to wait and appreciate it. And I'd say the look on her face says she did! I think she was beginning to think she'd never have one.)
I have no idea what was going on in these next few pictures (the problem with waiting 3 months to update my blog) but as you can see, monkey bread solves all problems.
As well as playing with those helmets some more...
Blake showing off his new breezers..
I think we were experimenting to see how many different ways we could arrange these helmets. (I posted all these pics in the order I took them, so you can see just how much the boys loved them.)
And what could make Christmas morning any better than getting FUn Dip from your aunts? (Thanks again Auntie Cam and Aunt Mollie---payback will come with you two have kiddos of your own!)
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