Christmas morning was spent at home with just Josh, Eleanor and me. Eleanor hadn’t slept well the night before. She’s a little sick this week, so she slept in very late. I got up around 8:30, Josh a little later, but Eleanor didn’t get up until after 10. She was hungry, so we ate breakfast before starting to open presents. Thus, the bright sunshine coming in the windows in the following photos.

As it was in my house when I was growing up, the presents for Eleanor were mostly from Mommy & Daddy with a couple from Santa. The Santa gifts are always something that was made by elves in Santa’s workshop (definitely not something with a brand name! The elves don’t work for Mattel or Disney!).

This year Santa brought Eleanor musical instruments, an Eleanor sized guitar, and a little drummer boy drum! She was very excited!

The rest of Eleanor’s gifts were mostly books and movies. Her favorite things!

It took forever for Eleanor to open her gifts. She wanted to try each one out before moving on to the next.

I gave Josh clothes. I know, it’s not an awesome gift, but it’s what he really needs and he was very happy with it.

Eleanor made a present for Josh and me at school. She wanted to help Daddy open it. It was a very cute ornament with her picture on it!

The last gift to open was mine. I knew that Josh had planned some big gift for me and had asked some friends and family to contribute, but I had no idea what it was. I thought maybe it was a camera lens or a DVD box set. But when he put this under the tree I had no clue what it could be.

It was Exposed: Redefining Boudoir, a book on boudoir photography by my favorite boudoir photographer Christa Meola! You may remember that I put it on my Cranky Gift Guide and mentioned that it was the gift I most wanted! I definitely didn’t cry when I opened it. Those are not tears in my eyes if you zoom in on the picture below!

A very big thank you to my Mom & Step-Dad Tommy, my father-in-law Brian & mother-in-law (as of Sunday!!) Raisa, Josh’s BFF Brian, and my BFFs  Betsy & Justin and Andrew & Amy without whom Josh would not have been able to afford this amazing present! Love you guys! This is the best present I’ve ever received!

After opening my amazing gift, we dug into the stockings.

Eleanor got a cool light-up ball,

a slidewhistle,

some cool new bath toys, AND

CANDY!! Of course! That’s the most important stocking gift of all!

Josh got the notebooks he wanted (see the Cranky Gift Guide), and CANDY!

I got a harmonica (I’ve been talking about learning to play), and CANDY!

And that was Christmas morning! Christmas dinner coming soon!