Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus!

"Filling the world, He lies in a manger" -Augustine

Happy Birthday to You! (cha cha cha)
Happy Birthday to You! (cha cha cha)
Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus! (cha cha cha)
Happy Birthday to You!
(cha cha cha, ooh la la, boom chicka rocka chicka la la la)

We love to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus (at the top of our lungs) first thing on Christmas morning. How AWESOME is Mr. Jesus that He loves us enough to share the fun of giving and receiving gifts on His special day? All the kids (minus Secret, who was sleeping like a baby) climbed up the ladder to Meadow and Heaven's bed (the fav.) to open stockings.

Yup.
Santa Claus came to town.

Santa liked the random what-not's we left him to snack on (I think the "It's Your Special Day" plate and the "Goody Gumdrops" mug made everything taste even better).

The Reindeer liked their carrots and apples. The left a lot of glitter behind. Pretty sure that's their secret to flying. Lots and lots of glitter.

Among Raven's favorite things to receive was silly putty (he's easy to please).

Among his least favorite things to receive was a bloody lip on Christmas Eve.
1 Trampoline + Lots of Hyper Kids... Sometimes = Bloody Lips

River, smiling his dazzling "River Smile", was all about the skateboards... little and big.

Meadow screamed with glee "What! What! What! What! What!!!? This is my FAVORITE!!!" about every thing she opened (she has a little of her Aunt Nee-Nee in her).

She especially loved her new dolly house and played with it for hours!

Heaven's favorite gift was Secret's new carseat. Yes, Secret got a carseat... these are the kinds of "gifts" you get for Christmas when you are the 5th child.

It's all good...

Secret was just happy to sneak a little Diet Coke, here and there, when she thought Mom wasn't looking.

This is our attempt at a picture with all the kids in it.
"Attempt" being the key word.

When all was said and done, the kids agreed that, although it ROCKS getting gifts... being Elves and giving gifts was even better!