Christmas Part 1- Waiting for Daddy (and Grandma and Grandpa)

Strangely, Nate and I both woke up before the kids on Christmas morning. Since it had snowed on Christmas Eve and throughout the night, Nate decided to go out and do some snow shoveling while waiting for the kids to get up. First, he helped our next-door neighbor shovel his driveway and the sidewalk in front of the house and then he went over to the church building to see if any shoveling was going on over there. While he was out the kids woke up and they (well, mainly Jefferson) were anxious to get downstairs. I held them off on the stairs while I called Nate to tell him to get back and called my parents to see if they were on their way. My parents beat Nate to the house and they distracted me just long enough that Jefferson snuck down and saw all of the presents before I could get a picture of his expression. He also saw the one unwrapped present- a Lionel Train bank from my parents - before I shooed him back onto the stairs. Nate arrived a couple minutes later, having never shoveled our own driveway and sidewalk.

Here are some pictures of the kids waiting on the stairs (the last two were after everyone was home and they were extra excited and I told them to make silly faces):