christmas prizes!

though it had been a long time since ledger had last unwrapped a gift, he took to it fairly quickly!  it didn't take him long at all to figure out what he was supposed to do with a wrapped present!  as the festivities got underway he did a great job of allowing others to have turns with opening their gifts, with only the occasional tug on someone else's wrapping papered gift.
it was a lot of fun getting to give gifts to the family and receive gifts in return.  for years and years everyone in the family has been saying 'we really need to cut back, we always over do it with gifts!', and this year it seems like we actually meant it!  diana and i cut back and were hoping that jill and mom were serious when they told us they were going to as well- otherwise we look like the cheapskates!  fortunately, everyone kept their word, and the only ones we spoiled were the kids- you know, the way it should be!
each of the kids had the chance to open one gift before dinner, and then we took a break to enjoy my mom's delicious food.  she often tries to do different things for christmas, one year it was a six foot sub from subway, another year we did the fondue thing.  well, this year mom just wanted us to have our favorites- each of us!  she spend a bunch of time making our favorite foods- i got deviled eggs, jill got a salad bar, tim got ham- each of us were totally thrilled by what was prepared!  what a wonderful treat!
after the meal we all headed back in to the living room to finish off all the prizes under the tree.  ledger was amazed that he got to open even more gifts, so he was all set.  as the night went on his pile of gifts just grew and grew!  each one that he opened he was thrilled with and wanted to open immediately.  everyone was so pleased with the gifts given!  as the pile under the tree was just about done, we got a call from chad!  he spent christmas in japan with his girl, but they did get the chance to skype with us for a little bit.  the two of them were doing great and we got to share with them all the fun we had been having.
as the night came to a close, tim and jill and the kids gathered up all their loot and sleepily said their goodbyes.  it was a really fun day, but boy was it exhausting!  good thing christmas is only once a year!
(more pics: 1, 2, 3)