Christmas Day

It was good that we didn't have an household of grandchildren on Christmas morning this year, because about mid-day I started feeling sick with some type of stomach thing.  As a result we postponed our Christmas dinner with Jessica and family and the grandparents.  We had a quiet day (I mostly slept) and Ben cooked a small dinner for those who were eating.

But before that, we did have CHRISTMAS MORNING with Ben and Jena!

The living room is ready........

the stockings are filled,......

Now the sun is shining, but Ben and Jena are still asleep.  Jessica was usually the one who was up before dawn on Christmas and she "influenced" the others to get up as well (although she was not allowed to actually wake them up before 6:00 am.)

Finally, this is the time we started the Christmas train to head to the living room.  10:40 a.m.

In their Christmas pjs (except Gary who is wearing his new Christmas shirt-- "Deck the Halls" clever, right?)

This box has been in our living room since it was delivered by Amazon and we dragged it this far from the porch.  Jena was quite excited to discover it was for her and unlike other years after our stockings where she heads right to the tree to beginning passing presents out to others, she asked if she could open her box first---so she did.

And she got her Christmas wish--a blue bean bag chair to take to college!  This thing started as a cube the size of the box and expanded over the next seven days to a huge bag.

The next day shot---

Notice the white envelopes under the tree?  Those are surprises from Jena and it is always great to get a note or something from her.

This year she had done some paper things for each of us and here is mine--A Santa elf.

Nothing is quite as sweet as your child's smile at Christmas!  (well, not totally true--there are a boatload of things that are sweet in life--sunrises, sunsets, falling snow, wind storms, flowers,  etc....but you know what I mean.  The world stops for a moment when you see that smile and all is right in the world.)

And one last picture because you all know that Jena does the tags for my gifts and we need at least one in this post.  "Sweet Cherry!" gave me a gift this year.

And that's a wrap---or technically an "unwrapped" day for Christmas 2019.  Merry Christmas, one and all!  From the Halls   (Do I say that every year??)