A Georgia Girl in Germany

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was nice to keep things quiet and simple, staying at home this year. I made a few last-minute trips to the commissary and post office Wednesday before we headed out for Christmas Eve church service. When we returned home, we baked up a few batches of cookies for Santa. I love this photo of Benjamin munching on a freshly-baked cookie while watching the next batch cook. Notice that he only has one sock on?

The kids were each allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve. Usually I’m on the ball and pre-select which gifts they get to open ahead of time ... usually with a similar theme such as slippers or pajamas. Not so this year ... partly because Mom volunteered to help wrap most of my gifts to the kids when they visited a few weeks ago. Don’t get me wrong, I’m NOT complaining one bit. It just meant that I didn’t know what was wrapped in what packages, and therefore was just as surprised when the kids opened their gifts. Fortunately, I had pretty good ideas as to what was inside each of the gifts they picked out (after I vetoed Zachary’s first pick -- his largest gift under the tree!).

Each of the kids wrote their annual note for Santa to leave out with his snacks. Zachary folded his up into a self-contained envelope. I think he just wanted to see if Santa could (1) open it and (2) refold it after replying. How sneaky! He knows that these envelopes completely stump me! Fortunately, Santa is much more talented than I am! He even told Santa, “Benjamin was good all year; when he wasn’t being a devil.” I don’t think any of them wanted to see Benjamin get more coal in his stocking this year (although Benjamin had a positive attitude about it, and was ready to save any newly-acquired coal to use as a snowman’s buttons).

MacKenzie wrote a short novella to Santa. Actually, she wrote two drafts, updating and perfecting each version until she copied her third and final version onto Christmas stationery. Look at the detail she included in the note! She even asked for “Benjamin to play games correctly, nicely, and not [cheat], Zachary to be nicer and play with me, and Mommy just not as strict but still strict.” Such honesty!

Benjamin did well with his letter too. He wrote the first two sentences, then had me write the third (long) sentence before he signed his name. He’s using his fingers here to leave a space between two words. He usually only uses two fingers to measure the space between words, but was adamant that he wanted to use four fingers this time. The little puppy beside him was the gift he had just opened minutes earlier. Zachary and MacKenzie were trying to convince him to name the puppy “Rascal,” but he keeps insisting that her name is “Benji.” Yes, it’s a girl dog, and, yes, her name is Benji.

They all worked together to set out Santa’s goodies: three cookies, five carrots for the reindeer, a cup of milk and a cup of eggnog. I love it when they get along so well. I suppose having a common goal and purpose really helps keeps things running smoothly.

The last thing they did before heading upstairs to bed was to check Santa’s progress online. They watched him travel from Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Greece, Turkey and into northern and central Africa before they called it a night. Zachary had his geography textbook out so they could see how close each of the countries was to Germany. Fortunately for them, Santa visited Eastern Europe then diverted to Africa before heading to Central Europe! Benjamin came down a short while after they all turned in for the night (more like only 5 minutes later) to ask me why I wasn’t taking my shower and getting in bed yet. Geez! I still had to tidy up the kitchen a bit. By then Santa was in Italy, and Benjamin quickly asked, “Is that close to Germany?” When I told him it was very close to Germany, he high-tailed it back to bed! I was soon upstairs in bed with him (it was his turn to sleep in my bed).

Christmas morning seemed to arrive much too early ... except for Zachary, who claimed he awoke at 4:30 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep. I asked him if he got out of bed and peaked downstairs, and he quickly, and sincerely, replied, “No! I lost your trust last week for doing something I shouldn’t have, so I want to earn your trust back. I’m not going to do anything I shouldn’t now!” When 7 a.m. rolled around (the appointed time that they were allowed to wake up each other -- and me), he first woke up MacKenzie, then came to get Benjamin and me. Benjamin didn’t want to wake up, even after Zachary and I gently rubbed his back for a good minute or two. The first words out of his mouth were, “I didn’t sleep long enough.” But, within a minute or so, he realized there were presents waiting for him downstairs.

I love this wrapping paper from Nana! It is so appropriate! Even the boys got a kick out of the paper and agreed that it matched their general behavior.

I didn’t take many photos of them ripping into their stockings or presents, but did get a kick out of watching Benjamin sit on the stairs to open a few presents. Apparently, as we were coming to the end of presents, there wasn’t enough room left on the floor in front of the tree for his liking. After he opened this present (“Oh, it’s clothes,” he said as he quickly stood up to get another box), he moved up three more steps to open his next gift.

We had a very wonderful day. The kids are getting to be pros at tackling Christmas. They took everything out of their stockings one-by-one, yet without dawdling. Since they know we don’t open presents from under the tree until after breakfast, they each quickly ate a single donut then proclaimed they were full and planted themselves in front of the tree. The last gift was unwrapped by 8:40 a.m., and the playing began. They played DS and Gameboy games, set up their profiles on the new Wii and Wii Fit (thanks to Santa!), watched a movie and selected a few games to play as a family. I’m still surprised that we’ve made it three full days without a single significant argument or disagreement! Wow! That was not the case just a few days before Christmas (I was beginning to doubt the sanity of my decision to stay home this past week with them, but am thankful that I did now ... it gave me the opportunity to gradually get everything ready for the big day and not be overwhelmed by doing so after work each day).

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is looking forward to a wonderful new year!

Labels: Benjamin, Christmas, MacKenzie, Zachary