Christmas Cheer

On Christmas Day, Patrick and I woke up around 7am-ish and heard Eric and Natalie downstairs with Grandma and Grandpa. They were busy playing with the items in their Christmas stockings. I got up by around 8am to make pound cake waffles. We didn't have any fruit or whipped cream, only chocolate chips. Grandpa and my brother-in-law Geoff put butter on their waffles, while everyone else had chocolate chips. Surprisingly, Anthony and Alex were up by around 9-9:30. They ate breakfast, and then we opened presents.

I didn't take a picture of the kids in Santa hats in front of the tree the last couple of years, but I love this picture and I need to remember to do this every year. As opposed to last year when they hung out all day in their pajamas, they all got dressed in their "day clothes" before we opened presents. Alex was better dressed than he was for church on Christmas Eve, complete with his red and green sneakers. Both he and Anthony came downstairs already dressed.

They all look good in red, but then red is my favorite color. Eric doesn't really care what color he wears, but recently he's favored the shirts with the "minion" theme. He's wearing a shirt that says, "I tried to be good, but I got distracted" with a picture of a minion looking guilty.

Natalie and Eric divided up the gifts, and then they all started opening. I didn't take a before and after photo this year, just photos of the ongoing action. Eric's pile was again the biggest, but mostly because his gifts were bigger. Anthony and Alex are much harder to buy presents for than Natalie and Eric, so they tend to get "smaller" gifts like gift cards. Each year, Grandma and Grandpa get them "art folios", i.e., Sports Illustrated Swimsuit calendars. Grandpa usually handwrites a little note about how he hopes they enjoy their "art folios".

This year they also each got checks inside a puzzle box. They had to solve the puzzle in order to be able to open the box and get their checks. Both of them solved it pretty quickly and then, just for fun, they tried to open their boxes again. It was fun to see them enjoy themselves with the puzzle boxes and I have to say that I was a little proud to see them solve them so easily.

Anthony bought his own presents for his siblings this year. We've been so proud of him taking it upon himself to get a job at school. We were expecting to support him fully until he graduates.

He gave Eric this Darth Vader voice changer mask. When Eric turns it on (yes, it needs batteries), he sounds like Darth Vader. We took a video of Eric saying, "Anthony, I am your brother" just like Darth Vader in Star Wars says, "Luke, I am your father." Natalie got shark socks. Patrick and I got WPI "Dad" and "Mom" shirts. Anthony gave Alex a Whataburger gift card. There is a Whataburger near Alex's high school, and that will surely come in handy. He also gave the gift card inside a Tinkerbell card, complete with fairy stickers--very creative and very funny.

Right about the time we were finishing up opening our presents, we heard the doorbell ring and then when I looked towards the door, I saw the USPS carrier set a box down next to the front door. I couldn't believe it--the post office delivered a present on Christmas Day! I would not have believed it had I not seen it for myself. The present was from my parents to Eric. My mom was going to wait to give it to him when we came to visit for New Year's, but she thought why not go ahead and send it. She got him Minion pajamas and Angry Birds Star Wars Telepods, which are toys designed to incorporate specific characters into the iPad game--very cool concept. Eric loved both presents and used them right away. We got many more presents, but I won't list them all here.

After we opened our presents, we just relaxed at home. I was glad to capture this shot of everyone enjoying videos together on the computer. There is a popular video for Volvo that has Jean-Claude Van Damme doing the splits while balanced between two big trucks. There is a parody of this video starring Channing Tatum, and then now there is a new video of a digitally created Chuck Norris doing the splits while balancing between two airplanes and having a bunch of guys above him in a Christmas tree formation--all very entertaining. Anyway, I had the windows open to the videos on my computer, so Patrick went and got my computer and showed Grandma, Grandpa, and Geoff. The kids had all already seen them.

We don't get to see Grandma and Grandpa very much and we almost never see Geoff, so it was nice to have them all here for Christmas this year. My next blog post will have a few more details about their visit.