After celebrating my birthday, we had a couple of days to finish all of our shopping and prepare for another grand Christmas. Christmas this year was done a bit different. Normally we are here in town for Christmas, and travel to see family afterwards. This year we decided to spend Christmas in Temple with my mother (Grandma) and my brother (Uncle Jim). Lori's parents came into town on the 19th, so we decided to have an early Christmas here, and leave for Temple on the 24th.
Our pseudo Christmas morning (the 23rd) started out bright and early. I guess that anyone who has ever been a kid understands the reason behind that. Aidan was up bright and early, and woke us up to make sure we did not miss opening gifts. Although Christopher is still to young to really understand what's going on, he had no problem with the concept of ripping/tearing off wrapping paper. Here he is just after opening his MEGA BLOCKS dump truck.
Aidan understands fully what it means to open gifts, and he just might be the Mozart of gift opening. He is a blur. Monkeyboy had a really good year, and we could not have been more proud of his accomplishments in sports and the classroom. Because of this, he got an extra special gift this year from his mom and dad, and he was ecstatic after opening it. Here he is just after opening his XBOX 360.
Yes, we have created a videohead monster.We spent the majority of the morning cleaning up the wrapping paper devastation and playing with our new gadgets. It is always so much fun to see the utter joy on the children's faces when they get presents. After we finished our pseudo Christmas at our house, it was time to do our second Pseudo Christmas at Nana and PawPaw's house. Cricket, Wyatt and Jackson meet us over there, and we all tore into our gifts with verve and gusto. We all got some really fabulous gifts, and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. Here is a picture of Nana and PawPaw Claus.
Christopher wanted in on the Santa hat festivities so I snapped a picture of him in Nana's lap.
After we left Nana and PawPaw's house about 9:00pm, we decided to pack the CX-9 up and leave for Grandma's late that evening. We figured we could miss all of the Christmas eve traffic. We did miss the traffic, but let me tell you, with everyone in the vehicle asleep except for me, driving at 2:30 am was really tough. I was one tired puppy by the time we got to Grandma's house. We all went straight to sleep and looked forward to our visit.
We spent Christmas eve visiting and playing. We had a lot of fun with Grandma, and even got to visit with Uncle Jim a bit after he got off work. We all got to bed at a decent hour, knowing that the two monkeys would be up bright and early.
Jim arrived about 7:00am on Christmas morning, and wouldn't you know it, Santa was able to find both the boys and left them some pretty cool gifts. Christopher loved the Police Car that Santa left for him,
and Aidan loved the Kick and Go Scooter that Santa left for him. After playing with their Santa gifts for a minute, Aidan and Christopher were ready their presents from Grandma and Jim.The first order of business for Aidan was to open the enormous box with his name on it. I knew at the time that Grandma had purchased a Gaming Chair for Aidan and had it shipped to her house. She wrapped the box after it arrived, and placed it next to the tree. I got the camera at the ready to record his reaction. Here he is just before opening it.
Boy o boy, here we go.....and just like that the paper started flying. As soon as he opened the box, his expression went from jubilation to confusion in a half a second. I too was perplexed until I stood up and saw what he was looking at. The geniuses at Amazon decided to ship him a HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL STUDIO DOLL HOUSE instead of his chair. He did not know how to react. As soon as I saw it, I told him about the mistake, and told him we would get it corrected. Needless to say, he was a bit disappointed. That disappointment lasted just as long as it took him to open his next present. He got a really cool LEGO helicopter from Uncle Jim, who was also
Christopher of course loved all of his toys. He had so many, he barely knew what to do. Here he is playing with a couple of them.
The rest of the visit consisted of visiting, playing, eating, and having a great time. We stayed until the afternoon of the 26th, and then headed home. I took a couple of pictures before we left that turned out pretty good. Here is Lori and the boys sitting on the swing at Grandma's house.
Here is one of Grandma and the boys.
We had a great visit, and it was great having Christmas again in the house where I grew up.
We spent the next couple of days relaxing in town, visiting with Nana and Pawpaw and Cricket and the boys. The boys spent a whole lot of time showing off their gifts, accompanied by an inordinate amount of screaming. Boys will be boys.
The 29th rolled around, and with it came Cricket's birthday. Oh yeah, another reason to eat some more cake! We went to a very nice restaurant for dinner, and topped it off with cake and ice cream. Yummy. Here is a picture of Christopher wishing Cricket a happy birthday.
Lori's parents left on the morning of the 31st, and our good friends from Houston came in late that afternoon. It has been a while since they have been here, and we were really looking forward to their visit. It was wonderful spending a couple of days with them, and like always time flew by too quickly. Here is a picture of Ken and Hailey just before midnight.
I could not think of better friends to ring in the new year with. Aidan even stayed up until midnight for the festivities. We spent much of the night playing poker. Let me tell you, Aidan is a card shark. You might think I am kidding, but he put a hurting on me and Ken during a long session of 5 card draw. The kid is a natural. Here he is showing his poker face.
Saturday came too quickly, and we had to say goodbye to our good friends. We had a blast while they were here. I snapped a couple of pictures just before they left. Here is their beautiful daughter Carley striking a pose for me.
She is such a cutie. Here is one last photo of Ken and Hailey and Carley, joined by our two monkeys.
Good times.....good times.
Well, believe it our not, that was a brief synopsis of the last two weeks. Believe me when I tell you that you don't want all the details. You would be reading for hours. In a nutshell this is it.......We have a wonderful extended family, and fantastic friends. God has truly blessed us.
Thanks everyone for a fun filled holiday.
William
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