We had ourselves a merry little Christmas!

And a white Christmas too!  

It started snowing Christmas Eve, it was very magical.

We ate our Christmas Eve feast while we watched the movie Elf.

Family Selfie just before bedtime.

Annual "tired out Christmas Elves" selfie

The calm before the storm.

Our Christmas Night Tale:

I got to bed late, like usual, while Curtis stayed up even later to write his talk for church Christmas morning.  Sometime around 2:00 am, Marco wandered into our room with leg cramps so I pulled into bed next to me, rubbed his legs and we both drifted back to sleep.  I woke up to sobbing noises at 5:30 and followed the sobs to Nathan's room, were I found Nathan and Bracken awake. Bracken was crying because "daddy won't let us open presents till 6:00 am."  At this point I realize that Curtis was not in bed with me and Marco, so with further exploration I found him curled up and sleeping on our love-seat.  He explained that Nathan and Bracken had been trying to commence Christmas morning since 3:30 and he was sleeping on the sofa as a guard.  I told the boys to snuggle in bed together and wait out the next 30 minutes while the rest of us slept a little longer.  

Fast forward to 6:15, I woke up and at first thought that the older boys must have fallen asleep, until I heard the sound of ripping paper.  I stormed into the living room to find Curtis out cold (he was a very tired guard) and Nathan and Bracken opening their Christmas gifts from Santa. I informed them that they were in BIG trouble.  Christmas morning was a family affair and they had better get their selfish little specimens back into bed, because now we weren't starting Christmas morning until little Marco woke up naturally on his own in my very dark and cozy room.  They were not happy and they both shed a few tears as they moped back to bed.  I put things back together as best I could before kissing my slumbering guard on the cheek and going back to bed myself.

Marco didn't wake up till 8:30, take that eager children!  It was lovely.  Those 2 extra hours of sleep completely saved Christmas morning for me and my trusty guard.  We were able to enjoy and experience all the wonder that is Christmas morning with our 3 boys to it's fullest.  Nathan and Bracken never did go back to sleep that morning.  But they paid for their insane early morning antics with headaches and tummy aches later in the evening and were very agreeable at bedtime.  I think they learned their lesson.

The afatermath.