Santa Claus

Until I married Andrew, I didn't give much thought to how other families do their Christmas, and whether or not Santa visits their house and what he usually does when he gets there.
Once Andrew and I were getting ready to start a family, we discussed these things.
For us, Santa was a big deal. I remember on Christmas Eve all 4 of us girls would be in our room (and even when we split up 2 and 2, a lot of times we'd end up in one room). We'd push our beds together and try to stay up. We'd giggle and talk and I vividly remember the one time I swore I heard Santa up on the roof. We'd eventually fall asleep, but we'd wake up around 3 or 4 and wake up each other. We'd sneak into the living room and our tree would be bursting with gifts. We were never allowed to wake mom and dad up any earlier than 5:00, I think (it may even have been earlier!). We would go through each gift and make piles and anxiously wait until it was time. We'd rush upstairs and wake up my parents and we'd spend all morning opening gifts. Santa was awesome. And the Easter Bunny was pretty cool too - he always hid our baskets so we'd have to go searching for them. He also always got into stuff, like flour or sugar, and would leave a trail all around the kitchen.
So, once Andrew and I were starting our family, I figured we could talk about how we would do it - I imagined the same way, but I wanted to know his family traditions.
"Oh," he said, "we didn't really believe in Santa or the Easter Bunny." And he didn't - like ever! I didn't realize that other families may do it differently. I talked to friends and Santa would get them like 1 or 2 big gifts. Some Santas didn't wrap the presents from them.
Since Andrew had nothing to compare it to, we're going my family's way. :)
On Christmas Eve night we exchange our gifts to each other and Avery (and now Hadley) get a few presents - an ornament to put on the tree, new pjs to wear that night and maybe a small toy (books this year). Christmas morning is totally all about Santa. He is bringing quite a bit this year. I'm SO excited to see Avery's face. We're going to put together a few of the bigger gifts and just cover them up, because last year she was very impatient while Andrew had to put them together. This way, she can play with them right away. I figured, maybe that could be a little tradition - 1 big toy for each kid already put together and ready to be played with - at least, until they get to the age where I remember getting up hours early to check out presents. The one year we got hamsters was pretty exciting because they weren't wrapped and we already started playing with them and had names picked out before my parents even got up.