Christmas Surprise

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing! I remember those moments of anticipation when I first awakened on Christmas morning. The delight of running downstairs to see the tree all lit up, the presents glowing underneath and the cookies eaten by Santa!

Being on the receiving end of an early Christmas morning is hard! One year my son woke us up at 4 am! Needless to say, I had to find a way to keep the kids in bed a little longer (my Christmas wish is to sleep in to 7 am)! I finally stumbled onto this idea: wrap a book up as a present for each child! Works like a charm.

My son will normally wake first and run downstairs to see if Santa visited us, then he will run and tell his sisters. Then, they all pile onto my son's bed for story time! The oldest will help the youngest to read her story. These few extra minutes of anticipation are wonderful for them and a blessing for my husband and I!

Another tradition from my childhood is to have a cup of hot chocolate before opening the gifts and to eat sweet rolls or monkey bread afterward! I have continued this tradition with my children, baking home-made cinnamon rolls. The absolute best scratch hot chocolate is from Hershey. I just take it one step further by adding a handful of chocolate chips to the pot at the end. My favorite brand of chocolate is Guittard. Simply the best chocolate ever.