Christmas Morning

Christmas morning started bright and early for Heath and myself.  That was ironic because the family had decided to plan a later morning and had agreed to meet for breakfast at 9 am.  However, my breakfast casserole took an hour to cook so I had to get up about two hours early to make sure all was ready on time.

Heath did not need a two hour window to prepare his traditional morning hot chocolate so I am sure he was planning to get a later start.  The problem was that I let the dogs out at 7 am and Frankie immediately went to the shed apartment to see what was up with his friends Finn and Pongo.  Heath got up when Frankie scratched at the door and let him in.  Heath tried to go back to bed but Finn and Frankie wanted back out.  Then they came back to the shed and scratched the door.  Eventually their indecisiveness about where they wanted to play drove him out of bed for good.  At least Heath and I got to enjoy a beautiful Christmas sunrise.

Once breakfast was over, we went to the basement to open presents.  The first to get their presents were the dogs.  Emily had one for Frankie but Frankie preferred the one she had gotten for the cat.  Go figure.

We always begin by opening our Christmas stockings first.  The first thing Mike opened was his Jeep ornament.  Heath like his 'Keep It Reel' t-shirt and Emily liked her Cubs scrunchie.  Laura was our official Christmas photographer so we had to stop everything while she sent a picture of the meat thermometer she found in her stocking to her friends.  I gave it to her because I wanted to make sure that she could host another friends Thanksgiving next year.  Apparently they were concerned this year when they cooked at her house and found out there was no such thermometer on the premises.  Also, they were not too pleased with her dollar store whisk either so I made sure one of those was in her stocking too.  

As we have come to expect from Heath (but don't take for granted), he made many of his presents this year.  However, ours had extra special meaning because Heath made them from the wood of the cherry tree that had fallen on our property.  Emily received a wine glass holder and I received a bench for my garden.  Mike and I thought it was too pretty to put in my garden (besides I am not suppose to be sitting when I am in the garden, I am suppose to be working) so we put it on the upstairs balcony right under the window.  It is protected from some of the outside elements there but I still get to see it every day.  It actually looks like it was made for that spot.  Laura checked it out for us.  

It was a nice relaxing morning but for me one of the best parts happened right after the opening of the presents.  I got to continue to relax while Emily, Suzanne and Heath went to work preparing the Christmas meal.