The
first gift under our tree was one from some ward members we had had over for Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. The gift was
moved when the carpet was cleaned and we forgot to return it. We had three small gifts under our tree,
presents from my sister and her family.
Jenna guessed what they were – but did not know all of the details that
awaited on the inside. Randy’s gift to
Jenna arrived unwrapped, but I took it out of the box and put it in a
decorative Christmas tin and put a tag to Jenna from Randy, Carrie and Devin. Gradually other gifts appeared. This is how it looked on Christmas Eve before
Roland and I finally went to bed:
Roland
creates cards and sends them out each year.
He sends cards out the last three months of the year focusing on
Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
Each year it seems we receive more Christmas cards than we did the year
before. This is what our two doors
looked like last night before we went to bed:
And
here is the way the fireplace looked last night before Jenna went to bed:
We
ended up purchasing another sock to fit all of Jenna’s loot. So this is what she woke up to on Christmas
morning:
Our
tradition is to open our stockings first.
This year we opened our socks one at a time – starting with Jenna. I
thought she would be more excited over the silicone straws than she appeared to
be. She did express pleasure for the flamingo and pineapple ice cubes. Her
favorite item that she retrieved was a plastic dinosaur that Roland had bought
for her.
In
Roland’s socks were the first two “stress” super heroes: Batman and Superman.
I
was surprised by the amount of items that my stocking contained – including two
pairs of socks. I selected the warmer of
the two and put them on my feet.
My
sister’s gift from her family to ours was a pair of socks for each of us. Minons for Jenna, an almost “cat-in-the-hat
‘thing’” socks for me, and superman socks with capes attached for Roland:
Roland
and Jenna put their socks on right away. Jenna continued passing out gifts and
we continued opening them up one at a time.
We
had each recived a hat for Christmas – all “wrapped” the same way. Each in a tin can. Roland’s to Jenna, Jenna’s from Randy and
although Jenna had picked out the hat I was wearing, it had been marked from
Santa.
Though
Jenna wasn’t wearing her hat until the final few pictures. The last two gifts
beneath the tree were for her. Tony has
always managed to sent give Jenna her absolute favorite gift of the
season. Last year it was a lap blanket
featuring a tiger.
The
year before it was the first six seasons of Psych (see here)
She
opened the gift from Tony first. She
screamed in delight at discovering the game “Encore” which she has asked for
each year since we have lived in Tri City.
The
last gift was from her brother, Randy and his family. It was a Pokémon hat. So now she has a Pokémon to wear in summer
and one for winter:
