Christmas During the Time of Corona

On Christmas morning, the kids have to wait until 7 am AND get a photo on the stairs before coming down.  We're at that fun stage where the little ones are up at 5am trying to keep themselves occupied in their room and the big ones are groaning when they get woken up at 7.  Big family life!

Here they come!

JP couldn't find his matching pajama shirt, but every party has a pooper ;)

Stockings first, and don't worry, Declan and Brendan got hand sanitizer like they asked for on their list to Santa.  He even got them cute superhero holders to attach to their backpacks.

This year I bought them all Catholic socks from Sock Religious, which were a huge hit for all ages!

Now pose for mom before we go eat breakfast!

Phil had picked up some bangers (Irish Sausages) on the Cape so we ate that deliciousness along with eggs, strawberries, and our once a year homemade cinnamon rolls.  I always feel like Santa after this brunch - ho ho hope I lose it in the New Year.

Then it was back to the living room for gifts!  Everybody gets three gifts cuz they ain't better than Jesus!

There were a couple of trick gifts this year.  

First up... Xander opened a gift with a Nintendo Switch game...

"But we don't have a Nintendo Switch!" he said.

"Oh Santa must have made a mistake", I replied.

"Unless, maybe, you're supposed to open this box?"

"What!  No way!  A Switch?!?!"

Gotcha!

Declan is sticking with his tradition of keeping all of his gifts with him wherever he moves.  Can't trust this family, I suppose.

Brendan had asked for rainbow playdough, because he loves playdoh and "rainbow" is his favorite color.  My friend sent me a link to an actual rainbow playdough set, and when he opened it, he yelled "This is what I've always wanted!"

Mission accomplished.

The second tricky gift was this box that Andrew opened that had a message written on a piece of wood inside.  It read "This is not actually your gift.  For your real gift, you have to go down to the basement."

The arrows led the way...

To a punching bag!

He was psyched.

When they came back upstairs, I was trying out my gift, a Chirp wheel in a not awkward position at all.

There were plenty more presents to open, including ones from the grandparents (thank you!) and we didn't take photos of everything, but the memories were made.  For record keeping, here's what we got:

JP - a gift card to buy a plane ticket, a Bose bluetooth speaker, sweatpants and books

Andrew - punching bag, football ladder and parachute, a football and football gloves.

Eamon - a miraculous medal, a football trainer throwing net, an XBox game.

Maggie - a miraculous medal, a Kindle and case, clothes.

Alexander - a Nintendo Switch with games, Sleeping Queens game (big hit!) and a journal for boys.

Declan - a drone (best one we've bought - easy to fly), ninja bots, a pikachu sweatshirt

Brendan - rainbow playdoh, a Batman sweatshirt, gear toys

Phil - a Nespresso machine, headphones and A Hidden Life DVD

Colleen - Chirp wheels and Sperry saltwater boots 

And we all got NEW/UPDATED DINING ROOM CABINETS (will post about those later)

Wow, we're spoiled :)

Bracciole for dinner!

My favorite people, healthy and happy and together.  I prayed and dreamed for the practically-perfect husband and lots of babies, and I am seriously living the dream.  This year has been hard, but we made it through together, and I'm so thankful.

Happy last day of 2020, and may 2021 bring joy and peace to you all.  Thanks for being faithful readers for all of these thirteen years :)