Sam left cookies and a note for Santa on Christmas Eve. As you can probably tell from his face, he was pretty excited. He slept longer than I thought he would, though. In fact, we had to wake him up the next morning because I was getting worried there wouldn't be enough time to open presents before Gillian had to have breakfast and a nap. And there wasn't. As usual, we had to open Santa presents in two shifts. And then there were Uncle Jeff presents. And then presents from Aunt Denise ... it was a whole present-filled day.

The four of us Christmas morning, in the middle of all the activity.

In every picture we have of Sam opening presents, he looks very serious. He wasn't unhappy - just extremely focused.

Gillian in the new winter hat Santa brought her, opening up her first Cabbage Patch Kid! I thought Gillian would be too young to really have a great time and that like most kids, she'd be more interested in the wrapping paper and boxes. I was wrong. She was VERY excited about her presents. She did a lot of shouting and pounding on things. It was a great time. She plays with a lot of her new toys, too.