Christmas in Akron

 We decided to do Christmas with our family the Sunday before we left for Indy.  We didn't want to haul all of the things we got for the kids to Indy and we also wanted to have a little special time with just the 5 of us before heading out of town.  Plus the grandparents spoil our kids so much, we knew what "Santa" brought would pale in comparison to everything they were given in Indy!

We had such a wonderful day hanging out as a family, I wouldn't trade it for anything, although I still feel torn if I like the idea of doing Christmas 4 days prior to the real Christmas.  Maybe I'm just a sucker for traditions, but it's just hard to get used to the idea of the kids not waking up at our house for Christmas (while it's equally hard to imagine not seeing our families for Christmas).  I think we'll decide what we'll do on a year by year basis for now, and hopefully someday we will be living closer to family and not have to worry about all this craziness.

We surprised the kids Sunday morning that Santa had come! They were so excited.  This year Santa filled their stockings with water bottles, socks, underwear, candy,and a couple small littlle toys/accessories.  He also brought a Gigaball (which basically got popped within a week of owning it), a wubblez ball and bunchems for Lucy, a light saber and lunchbox for Hank, and puzzles and a book for June.  The kids also trade toys amongst themselves - June got playdough, Hank got a transformer, and Lucy got kinetic sand.  We got the kids some clothes and raincoats and matching PJs.

After opening presents all morning, we played with toys had sausage gravy and watched a Christmas movie while snuggling on the couch.  And to top the day off, our church had already started having Christmas Eve services, so we even got to go to church on our Akron Christmas!