Christmas 2007
We are privileged to live so close to both sets of grandparents. Since Damon and I have been married we have executed the same Christmas plan every year. We spend Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Holmes house with Damon's sisters and brother and their families. We have lots of tasty finger foods, sing Christmas songs, listen to the Christmas story from the scriptures, then exchange presents. We drive home Christmas Eve, put the kids to bed and do our last minute Christmas prep. We wake up in the morning and have breakfast and open our presents from under our tree. Then, we get ready and drive to Grandma and Grandpa Sandberg's house sometime in the afternoon and spend the rest of Christmas day with my side of the family. It really is wonderful to spend a few days with family and it makes Christmas seem to last longer.
Caleb LOVES garbage trucks. He loves to play with them. and he's obsessed with watching our own garbage man take our own garbage away (that's another story). For the last 3 months, Caleb has had his eye on a specific garbage truck from Fred Meyers. It's automated, has lots of buttons, makes garbage truck noises, and comes with a garbage man and can that attaches to the arm of the garbage truck and with a touch of a lever, automatically lifts the can up and over the truck and dumps out the contents. It even comes with a DVD on "Where the Garbage Goes". Every time we run to the store for a quick errand, he asks if we can stop by the toy section to look at this truck. Nevertheless, I knew exactly what Santa was going to bring him this year months ago!
Since, Damon works for Federal Express, this time of the year is always an extremely busy time for him and he always works on Christmas Eve. Which means, I have to get the last minute gifts together, make a few yummy finger foods, pack the car with diaper bags, and load the kids in the car all by myself... and by the time we get to Grandma's we look like we are moving in the for the week. :) This particular Christmas Eve I was feeling rushed and failed to make my "bring with me" list and ended up forgetting the camera at home (I was so mad).
We arrive at Grandma/Grandpa Holmes's house, start our evening out by eating a great dinner, move on to singing our carols and listening to the Christmas story and then start to open our presents. On a side note- I come from a family that opens one present at a time. Damon grew up with the tradition of everyone opening up their gifts at the same time. Since I married into the family, I have tried to push my (present opening rules) onto the family, but as much as they try (their really is alot of people in the house) it usually ends up with people opening their gifts at the same time and you usually miss out on what people have received.
Caleb receives a present from Grandma Holmes and begins to open it.....yeah, you guessed it, it was the same exact garbage truck (minus the color) that Caleb has been coveting for months. He's elated, excited, and is in total awe of his beloved garbage truck....and I don't have my camera to capture the moment...and I have another garbage truck just like it (only a different color) wrapped and sitting in my closet awaiting to be given from Santa. Grandma Holmes had NO IDEA that's what he was supposed to be get from Santa.
Time stops still. Damon helps him take it out of the box. Some of his cousins are interested in this present too. After an hour of sharing his garbage truck with others, he insists that he is ready to go home. Totally, unlike Caleb to say that (he LOVES grandma's house), I ask him why. He gives me a look and drives his garbage truck to the most remote corner in the room as if to say, I want to go home because I'm tired of sharing. :) It's eventually time for us to leave, we pack up the car and kids. It's late. Caleb is tired. The garbage truck sits on Caleb's lap the entire ride home. If we would have let him, he would have slept with it as well, but we told him the truck had to stay downstairs in the family room and that he could play with it tomorrow.
Christmas morning, I wake up around 5:00am and quietly go downstairs and turn on the lights on the Christmas tree and then go back to bed. Around 6:30am we hear Caleb come out of his room. We expect that he should be bouncing through our door at any minute announcing that it's Christmas time and that Santa has come. But, there's nothing... We hear him go down the stairs. Surely, after he sees the tree all lit up it would guide his eyes to the bottom of the tree. Surely, he'll come running back up the stairs to tell us to get out of bed and to come downstairs. But, there's nothing....Then, we hear it. The garbage truck noises.... he's found his truck and is too busy to notice or care that Santa has arrived.
Damon and I get out of bed and get dressed. Porter is still sleeping so we quietly walk downstairs. "Merry Christmas, Caleb!", we say. "Mom..Dad, look at my garbage truck!!", was all he could say. (As if we could have forgotten about it.) Despite the piles of packages and the stuffed stockings, Caleb was already in laa laa land. He'd already received the big Kahoona (sp). and doesn't care about the rest of the presents under the tree. In fact, our Christmas took almost 3 hours because we had to coax Caleb to open "another present" and as soon as he would open one, he would go back into the family room to play with his new favorite toy.
I decided on the way home on Christmas Eve that Caleb would have two garbage trucks (since they were different colors). The expression that he had on his face as he opened the second truck was not even a close comparison to the reaction he gave on Christmas Eve. Despite my disappointment on missing that moment on camera, Caleb really had a wonderful Christmas and in the scope of things, that's all that matters. According to Caleb, Grandma Holmes for the record, is now better then Santa Clause. :) We love you, Grandma Holmes!
Here are a few of our 2007 Christmas moments. Merry Christmas everyone!
