Ah yes, it's that time of year again. It's also that time of year when families often have to juggle and balance their time between "his parents" and "her parents" so as not to offend anybody. And it's also that time of year when you spend too much, sleep too little, eat WAY more than you intended to, and just generally feel wiped out. But the kids are happy, so there you go.
Yes, one of my favorite times of the year. *smirk*
We make a point to spend Christmas morning at home, now that we have kids of our own. So far that's worked out fine, and now that Zeke is old enough to actually worry about whether he was naughty or nice all year, we do get a little kick out of the Christmas morning under the tree thing.
This year I happened to have nodded off in the recliner next to the tree, since Gabe had wanted a bottle at about 4 a.m. (which is unusual for him, but maybe he wanted to see what Santa brought him, too?) Somewhere around 5:15 a.m. I could hear a high-pitched squeal near my feet and woke up enough to realize it was Zeke. He'd found the superhero-battle-crashing-something mobile he'd been wanting (a fancy-looking truck of some kind for Wolverine and his fellow superheros) and he was then doing the happy dance and trying to decide which direction he wanted to take off running and who he wanted to break the happy news to first.
I closed my eyes and groaned. Gabe didn't seem too interested, stretched a little, then went back to sleep in my arms.
"Mom! Can I open it now? Can I? Huh? Can I??"
"Not until Daddy wakes up."
[Heavy foot falls as 4-year-old boy runs to the bedroom.]
(Muffled adult male voice) "It's too early. Get up here in bed and go back to sleep."
[Several minutes later, heavy foot falls back into the living room.]
"Now can I open it, Mom? Can I? PLEEEEEEEEASE??"
"You have to wait on Daddy. Go back in there and see if he'll get up."
"I can't go back in there. He'll make me lie down again."
So it would seem he did climb into bed with Hubby and waited juuuust long enough for him to go back to sleep, then came back into the living room to hound me about his new toy from Santa. Slick, very slick.
The rest of the weekend was a blur of dinners with family and the opening of gifts galore, not to mention mountains of wrapping paper and gift bags. My living room floor still looks like a bomb was detonated in there, but we all had a wonderful time. Here are some pictures from the happy occasion...
A blurry snapshot of me and Zeke.
Gabe and Mammie.
Gabe and me.
Pop Pop takes a picture of Zeke giving his new camera a whirl. Nana officiates.
Jeremy helping Nana with the turkey.
Gabe and his new teddy bear blanket.
Gabe smiles for the camera!
A special ornament for Gabe's first Christmas.
Lots and lots of wrapping paper...
Zeke models his new Spiderman hat (to go with his Spiderman shirt).
Tearing through paper has to be the best part!
A new set of tools for the budding handyman!
I just wanted to make a quick entry and reflect on the fact that we are at the end of another decade. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since Y2K! And in the last 10 years, I have graduated from college, gotten married, bought a home, and had two kids.
