Before and After

Christmas Day at our house is pretty much like millions of other homes with small children: Complete Chaos, coupled with constant WHINING. Here's what our living room looked like post-Santa but pre-kids awakening:
And here's what it looked like after (and this was just the stuff from us and Santa - mostly - not including all of the gifts that arrived with everyone else):

Oldest Boy knew that he had to go to bed early the night before (although I put him off until close to normal bedtime instead of at 4:30PM, which was what he wanted). He also knew that he didn't have to wait the whole way until the "7 on the left" which is our normal rule. (The kid wakes up anywhere from 5:30AM to 7:30AM. Unfortunately, he gets this from my side of the family. Not me, just my side). So, at the butt-crack of dawn (5:30AM) there he was - on my side of the bed, naturally - wanting to know if we could go downstairs yet. Unfortunately for him, he's my only normal early riser which meant he had to wait a bit. Mr. MOTH is NOT a morning person by any stretch of the imagination so he told Oldest Boy he had to wait for his siblings. A meltdown of epic proportions ensued. I had gone to pee (for about the twelfth time that night) and when I came back he was snuggled up in our bed and Mr. MOTH was about to get up. Of his own free will! Guilt is a powerful thing...

He decided to take him downstairs and at least let him see the goods, although still no opening of the gifts until EVERYONE was awake (cue whining). Youngest Boy was next, although he forgot it was Christmas. Once I reminded him he raced down the stairs to see if Rudolph had eaten the carrot. He was fixated on that dang carrot all.night.long. He thought he'd be able to hear the crunch and then he would know Santa was there. Then he noticed the gifts (cue whining). Finally, at 7AM I woke up Baby Girl - she takes after the other side of the family and was not.happy.at.all. More whining. She would rather SLEEP than open gifts. Go figure.

Eventually, everyone got what they wanted. We opened gifts. My parents showed up with the best cinnamon rolls on the planet. I got coffee. Life is good. Seriously, when your biggest complaint is that there's too much stuff, life is better than good. It's great. Happy Holidays!

**And in case y'all are wondering...the Red Cake was fantastic! Other than the fact that no men in my family seem to understand the concept of the cake carrier and therefore my leftover part was destroyed, all went well.