An Early Christmas For The Grandchildren

Our original plan for Christmas was what we do every year... we invite all of Sheila's immediate family including her parents to the house on Christmas morning for presents and a big breakfast. Then, we entertain friends later in the day and into Christmas night. This is something we have been doing since before the grandchildren were born but it has become more of a family tradition since their birth. Now Sheila has her own family of three generations so we tend to do the "family celebrating" here, at our home, for her family... which is pretty typical for most families.

A few days ago, an opportunity arose for us to head significantly south to much warmer climates (yes, although hard to believe, much warmer than our wet, balmy temperatures in the 50s) to celebrate Christmas with our Air Force family... I came up with a plan before I even mentioned this opportunity to Sheila... then presented it to Sheila as a surprise... and she enthusiastically jumped on it immediately! Within a matter of hours, our new Christmas itinerary was firm and reservations were set in place.

Now... what to do about Christmas for the grandchildren? 

That certainly could not be put on hold. Christmas is about the kids and delaying their presents wouldn't be fair to them. Fortunately, Liza and the grandchildren were able to squeeze in a quick Christmas visit last night. When we get back home, we'll schedule the usual family thing for Christmas in the form of dinner this year rather than breakfast.

So, on the eve of Christmas Eve... with all the windows in the house open because it was so warm out... Kenzie and Lukey started tearing into their Christmas presents. 

They were excited about all their presents but we had hidden and kept the two best presents for last. Lukey opened up his last wrapped gift... a present filled with a locomotive and a few freight cars. Kenzie opened up her last wrapped gift... a present with a whole family of dolls... 

What good is a set of trains with no track? What would Kenzie do with a family of dolls with no house?

The train layout and the big dollhouse were hidden in our new bedroom just off the living room. I knew I wanted to see their reaction so the only way to do that would be to put a camera on a tripod and just let it record video as they walked into the room. 

In this case, the kids were doubly surprised. I would call it more of a silent bewilderment. The last time they visited this room it was Uncle Adam's room... green trim, white ceiling, few lights and completely different furniture. The room itself was completely new to them so I believe this shocked them at first. For them, it was like walking into a different world and wondering if they were in the same house. It is possible they thought they were being shown the room itself and not gifts since everything in the room was new to them. It was almost as though they were disoriented. 

Although it is difficult to see in the video, they were both surprised and very happy with these hidden gifts. Kenzie played with the dollhouse all night and Lukey kept his new trains running all night long even to the point of fighting off sleep, lying with his head on a pillow as his new trains quietly glided around their tracks...

Lukey, fighting off sleep at the end of the evening...

Kenzie played with her new dollhouse...

Gee received a new lightweight graphite kayak paddle...

All in all, it was a nice spur of the moment change in plans. The grandchildren certainly enjoyed an early Christmas!

Now it is time for us to start packing...