Ahh….still basking in the Christmas Day afterglow:)  We had a wonderful time.

H climbed into our bed around 4:40AM (that’s generally the time of day when he first starts stirring, but doesn’t fully wake up for the day until sometime between 6 and 6:30AM).  He stayed in our bed for a while, and then at 6AM, he started chattering about brachiosaurus, and the number of stomachs possessed by various animalia.  It was quite clear that H, despite talking incessantly the previous day about how it was Christmas Eve, had forgotten that it was Christmas morning completely.  Around 6:15AM, H asked for a snack.  I rolled over and asked Rob if he was ready to get up for some breakfast (e.g. Ahem, Christmas).  Rob wasn’t really ready to get up, but did so reluctantly, knowing that it was Christmas morning and that he didn’t want to miss H’s initial mindblown reaction.  So we followed H’s lead, walking down the hallway toward the living room, where H walked PAST the tree, PAST the presents, and into the dining room, without any sort of overt sign that he knew what day it was.  Once in the dining room, he sat on the floor, and waited patiently for us to join him.  He gazed out into the living room, and stared at the illuminated tree for a full 10 seconds.  We waited expectantly for H to realize what day it was; even the tree seemed to be standing there with baited breath.  H then rubbed his eyes.  And finally, realizing what day it was, he exclaimed “Christmas!!!!!!!!!!” and ran into the living room to begin his initial inspections:

H received a ton of really wonderful gifts.  I loved the leisurely pace of his unwrapping—we began around 6:15AM and didn’t finish until close to 3PM.  H would unwrap something and then play with it for an hour or so, or until he was ready to check out his next gift.  We took a break around 9:00AM for some oatmeal cinnamon pancakes, bacon, and leftover Hanukkah latkes (yes, I enjoy the delicious irony of our bacon and latke combo).  H refused to stop playing to eat, despite the fact that the entire reason he got out of bed that morning was because he was hungry!  He finally relented around 11AM and had some pancakes.

For Christmas, H had asked for one gift in particular—a very special gift that he inquired about no less than 37 times during the past month.  He wanted dry erase markers for Christmas.  And so, with unparalleled glee, H danced around the living room with his dry erase markers, elated that he got exactly what he wanted:

For dinner, I made a beef roast with yorkshire pudding and broccoli.  Dessert was chocolate cream pie (not my own concoction, I’m not *that* much of a domestic diva).  We shared plenty of stories all day long, a roaring fire, hot drinks, and lots of cuddles.

The day after Christmas was just as great.  We went to visit a friend whose house is situated on a golf course.  The golf course was covered in several inches of fresh snow, so we embarked on our first sledding excursion of the season.  It was a spectacular day with sunshine and blue skies, and lots and lots of beautiful snow:

What a spectacular day we had!  Followed by hot chocolate and leftover chocolate cream pie.  And our little fetal Friesel got to go on his first ever sled ride, in utero.   A mighty nice start to winter, indeed.