Christmas Morning Magic

We were awoken this morning, at a very reasonable 8:10am, by squeals coming from Quincy's bedroom. "Open it!" "It's a fire engine!" Santa had left him a fire engine train in his bed. He was not expecting that! Jeremy has such fond memories of waking up Christmas morning as a child to a sack of gifts at the foot of his bed, courtesy of Father Christmas. So we decided to incorporate that tradition by asking Santa to leave one small gift in Q's bed.

We could have called it a day after that, but instead we headed up to the tree, two flights up, at a run.

And with A Charlie Brown's Christmas CD playing and Quincy screaming, "Santa brought you (me) a tricycle!" the fun continued.

The gift opening and exchanging was at a nice and slow pace. Perfect. Although after we finished, all the presents for Jeremy's side of the family, especially those that held chocolate, were looking pretty enticing to a certain someone. Not naming names.

Notice the message Santa left for him: Dear Quincy, I think you are ready to use the potty. Love, Santa. Those undies were the only gift not met with over-the-moon excitement and appreciation!

For the last two months, his two wishes from Santa were "a tricycle and a crane to lift the cargo up and down". His wishes came true, but while opening the crane there was a minor glitch that required some quick thinking on my part... You see, Quincy apparantly left a few toys in Cincinnati, so Santa very kindly picked them up on his way through and included them in the box with the crane. His confusion and my shock were caught on video. We'll be sure to save that one for when he's older!

After my clever recovery and before losing himself further in play, there was the very important business of finishing Santas' leftovers...a half-eaten marmalade biscuit and a bit of warm milk. Yum.

A bit more tempting, in my opinion, were the waffles that Jeremy made for brunch. We took a break to fill our stomachs before attacking the stockings. We are a house of chocolate lovers, so the Christmas crackers filled with chocolates were a nice accompaniment, for sure.

Onto the stockings, and this picture has to be my favorite of the day.

A tiny bit of silliness

and a lot of chocolate and candy canes were involved.

His excitement was seriously contagious. Only 365 days until we can do it again!