Patience Is A Virtue!

We celebrated Christmas with my mother's side of the family this evening. Our family is growing exponentially every year and we are running out of space. The young children under the age of 12 are rapidly out numbering the adults. 

As we run out of room it is becoming more and more difficult to gather everyone in the same room to open gifts. We began the evening with a prayer from my cousin Molly. She did a great job. We enjoyed a delicious feast and the children played while eagerly awaiting to open gifts. I personally did not hear any nagging or whining to open gifts immediately like I used to do. Our family is quite spread out so I think the kids just enjoy being able to play together and forgot about the excitement that was in store for them.

It was finally time to pass out gifts and the children came running. The older experienced children lead the charge like a herd of sheep. They fell into formation like a company of soldiers.

The children sat patiently waiting for all of the gifts to be distributed. Even Charlie did not rip into his gifts until the signal was given. 

When everyone said "Go" children were immediately lost in a mountain of wrapping paper. One by one little heads popped up with arms raised high holding the treasures that had been opened. Charlie received a bulldozer, a power drill and a flashlight. The favorite was the flashlight.

All of the children enjoyed the gifts that they received. As they gathered their loot and retreated to the basement to play Charlie was handed an early birthday present. It was a bag of Legos. You would have thought that he was given a bag of gold.

Of course he wanted them opened so that he could commence building a tower. I tried to ignore his request to prevent blocks from being scattered everywhere, but he is persistent. Like his mother, he goes around asking everyone until he finds the answer he wants.

I walked into the kitchen to find someone opening the bag of Legos. I whispered "Don't open those. I don't want them to be scattered." The reply was "Charlie is sitting over there waiting for us to open them and play."

I looked over the couch to find Charlie sitting patiently in the floor waiting for his blocks. That little stinker was hiding knowing that I did not want him to dump all of the Legos out. He gets his charm and persuasion from his daddy. He looked up at me and just grinned as to say "Haha. I got what I want, but I'm cute so it is okay."

Christmas is so awesome when you have children. Thank you everyone for everything. Thank you God for my children. Merry Christmas.