'Twas Very Merry

All Tyler asked for from Santa this year was the "new red Shrek movie". Not that he had ever seen it and he's not even a big Shrek fanatic. It was totally 100% the marketing that lured him in. I mean, really, he saw this movie every place we went for a month straight and McDonald's even had Shrek Happy Meal toys and the whole nine yards. But in order to get a believer, you gotta do what you gotta do, right? So, now you have the background on that.

I went to bed on Christmas Eve totally worried about how the morning was going to work itself out because I wanted to be there when Tyler discovered that Santa had come, but the way things work at our house, the living room separates our bedroom and his. So I usually wake up in the morning with Tyler standing at my bedside telling me it's sunny outside since he wakes up, gets out of bed, and comes into my room without a peep--and he has to walk through the living room to do so. And you just never know when he's going to wake up either, so I didn't know if I could set an alarm or how it would all work. Needless to say, it made for a very bad night's sleep for me since I was worrying about it so much, only to drift off to a most peaceful slumber around 6:00. Next thing I know, Tyler is standing right next to my bedside in his soooo stinkin' cute Thomas pj's (thanks Grandma!) holding Shrek the Third saying "Mommy! Santa brought me this new red Shrek movie!! And...a tractor..." Not the way I had envisioned Christmas morning, but I must admit, it was such a fun way to be woken up!

I quickly wiped the sleep from my eyes and jumped out of bed trying to gain composure so I could take in every minute of it. Garrett and I were rushing around trying to tell Tyler to wait just a minute while we got Sam and the camera, etc. All the while, he is running in and out of our bedroom announcing another item he had discovered. So we finally got out there and got to work. Here are some of my favorite images from Christmas morning at our house this year.

Santa knew that Tyler wanted the Shrek movie, but Santa also wanted to find Tyler just the right toy to go with it. So, when Santa saw this remote control tractor, he knew it was a must. And I gotta admit, Santa hit the nail on the head. It was the hit of the day! Tyler was thrilled with it!
And is there anything better than digging through the stocking? I think not. I love the treasures that are found in the sock.
I love me some Christmas morning bedhead!



It was time for Sam to join the rest of us and have some BYU gear of his own. Startin' him young.


Gosh, that Santa is good. He even left a little something for Daddy. (which some chubby little hands were trying to get into) So, Matt & Amber Nielsen, you know Garrett's feelings on drinking soda out of a can or a bottle as opposed to a cup, so you can only imagine how he feels sipping his soda out of a glass bottle!

Oh, the tractor.... Drove over mounds of wrapping paper and hills of empty boxes. It was the sound of Christmas morning at our house.

If you know Garrett, you probably know that he is an instruction book junkie. He reads the instruction manual from cover to cover for every item that comes with one. Literally. And he rips into them immediately after opening the package and reads away. (this is very beneficial for me since I hate reading instruction manuals and he can just show me how to use something in 1/10 of the time it would take to read how...) And if you've ever spent Christmas morning with Garrett, you also know that you have to strategically let him open his gifts, so that any gifts that include instruction manuals are last so you don't have to delay the present opening activities while you wait for him to read instructions. Because there have literally been times when we have all finished opening our presents while Garrett is still on his first one. Lucky for us, we just happened to open the Wii from Garrett's parents very last (even though we had no idea we were getting it, so it was not even a strategic thing, just lucky). Its instruction manual was devoured in record time. And this year I realized that Tyler is the exact same way. He would open one present and have no interest in any more until we reminded him that he had more to open. First it was the tractor. It had to be removed from the box with batteries in place and driving around before he could move on to other gifts. Then it was the books. He got a couple of books. And with each one, he had to turn every page and look at the pictures before going on. So... this would strike my FAVORITE image of the day below. They are twins, I tell you! Here are my instruction manual afficionados:

And we pretty much stayed in our jammies (all of us in new ones, thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Andersen) until about 4:00 and lounged in this glorious mess all day long. We ate pain perdu (a Southern french toast recipe) for breakfast (at around noon I believe) with eggs and bacon and sausage and orange juice. :) I failed at my attempt to make the traditional Andersen family Christmas morning bran muffins. Oh well, I guess I can try again another year. A day spent totally relaxing and being together with the magic in the air called Christmas. It was such a fun experience as the magic of Santa Claus was ever so present and I have to say I am pretty sure we got ourselves a believer! We had dessert with friends that evening and were completely spoiled by all of our families. Thank you all so much! Hope you all had a Very Merry Christmas!