Santa Claus is Coming to Town

After our Christmas Eve service we went home, ate dinner, and put Carter to bed.  I was really looking forward to Christmas Eve night with Matt getting all of Carter's presents from Santa set up and out for him to find the next morning.  I've always thought Christmas Eve night after the kids were in bed would be one of the best days of the year for being a parent.  I love gift giving and it's so much better to give gifts to your own children, nieces and nephews.

Carter is very fortunate to be spoiled rotten by his grandparents and great grandparents, so Matt and I planned from the beginning to keep his Christmas gifts to a minimum.  I put our Amazon Prime membership to the test and did 90% of our Christmas shopping from Amazon, Carter's gifts included.

• I'm A Big Brother book by Joanna Cole- I want one of his gifts each year to be a book, and what better choice this year than a big brother book! He still hasn't shown much interest in it; he would much rather read something by Eric Carle or Sandra Boynton.  But I'm sure the time will come where he will want to read this book and it will always be a special part of his library.  
• Reversible jacket- this was an unplanned purchase that went on flash sale during Black Friday.  Carter was in need of a new jacket so I quickly added this to my cart.  The inside is red fleece and outside is silver and water-resistant.  Perfect for football games or rainy winter days.  And the size is perfect and I'm hoping to get one more seasons' wear out of it.  
• Fisher Price Grow-With-Me Tool Set- Initially I was thinking about getting him a play kitchen because he loves playing with Brooxie Kate's kitchen when we go over to my parents house.  Matt thought that was too "girly" so when I came across this tool set I knew it would be perfect for Carter.  The drill makes noise, the side piece rolls in and out, you can actually hammer and screw the nails and bolts in.  Right now we have it on the shorter setting but as he gets bigger and taller it will grow with him and we can raise it higher to it's next setting.  And there are attachment pieces we can purchase along the way.  The best part is that he uses the cabinets at the bottom to stash his pacis, toy cars, etc so we never know what we will find in there. 
• Leap Pad 2 Explorer, Games and Case- this was recommended to me by another mom from Carter's preschool class.  I ran into her at Hobby Lobby one day and her son was sitting silently in the cart playing on his Leap Pad.  She added that he plays silently the entire time she is grocery shopping AND he knows his ABC's.  Did I mention he's not even two?!? Again, Carter shows no interest in his Leap Pad yet, but I also think it's something he will grow into.  

The tool table ended up coming set up as one piece so all Matt and I had to do that night was set everything out.  Granny had gifted Carter with a basketball goal the day before so we also set that up for him.  The wrapped packages are the gifts from me and Matt to each other. 

Tangent- Matt and I still have not agreed on whether Santa wraps gifts or not.  Apparently Santa wrapped all of his gifts growing up, but never wrapped mine.  Also- are gifts set out by the tree or by the fireplace?  All I can think about is next Christmas when we are wrapping and setting gifts out for THREE kids! I told Matt if Santa wants to wrap gifts then Matt will need to help Santa wrap the gifts.  ;) End tangent.  

Christmas morning we woke Carter up and lead him into the living room to see if Santa came by our house overnight.  He was a little shocked to walk out and see all of these new toys set out for him.  We had to give him a little push that he was allowed to go over and play with everything.  He first ran to the tool set and started playing there.  It was hard to get him to look at anything else after that! It was obviously a hit! He did end up playing basketball with Matt for awhile and seemed to enjoy that just as much as the tool set.

Matt got me a new diaper bag and some perfume while I got him a game for his Xbox and some Bloody Mary mix he likes but can only find online.

Matt opens wrapped gifts with a pocket knife by cutting the tape open.  He doesn't like to rip the paper. It drives me crazy! 

"Cheese!"

Growing up my parents always did such a great job of making Christmas Eve and Christmas morning magical for me and my sister.  I hope Matt and I can do the same for Carter and the girls'.  I had a ton of fun shopping, wrapping, and displaying all of our Christmas gifts this year, and know next year will be THREE times as fun!