Christmas

I picked up Gram 2 nights ago and she was excited to come to our house. We have had my grandparents stay at our house for Christmas since we moved to Oakley and it has been awesome. This is the second Christmas without Gramps and there was definently something missing. Gram was quiet and seemed a little melancholy, but tried to put on a brave face for us. We had our traditional fondue dinner and the boys ate all the shrimp and most of the the chocolate stuff. We cut Dawson off after 25 cream puffs, but he would have had more. The boys have been a little sick the last week or so, so it was good to have them eat something. The last several days have been long and filled with so much whining, that I couldn't wait for Christmas to be over with. Next year, I am definently going to do more talking about the true meaning of Christmas and less threatening of what Santa can or can't see. The kids opened their traditional p.j.'s and Dylan was pumped about Spiderman jammies but Dawson said "Power Rangers? I don't like Power Rangers!" I could tell right away, that we had once again gotten out of control with their presents. Next year, I SWEAR, I will only get them a few things. On Christmas Eve, we decided to forgo naps in order to have the boys go to bed easy, but it backfired with Dylan. That kid needs his sleep, especially a nap. For the first 3 hours he was in bed, he was in that weird sleep/kind of awake state, and he kept calling to us because his hand was falling off. Dave went in about 3 times and "glued" it back on.

We got up about 7:30 Christmas morning and the kids were very excited. We had a great time opening presents. Emma didn't quite get the opening part, but she just hovered around whoever was opening a present and just bounced in front of them. She got a little Dora Push/Ride thing and she loves it. I tried to pick her up to get her in the tub and she just tightened her grip on the steering wheel and her thighs around the toy. I had to shake her a couple of times until she let it go. She finally did, but not without a lot of grunting in protest. Dawson's favorite present was a Leapster Learning thing, and a Power Ranger's padded suit and mask. (surprise, he does like Power Rangers) Dylan loved his big "digger" and his evil light saber. It seems funny to me that my kids never want to be the good super hero. They love to play evil super heros, hopefully that is not some kind of foreshadowing.

We opened presents until 9:00 and then we had to hurry and get breakfast started. All of Dave's family always comes for breakfast on Christmas morning for his famous omelettes. Luckily they were running a little late, so we had time to get things started. The kids had fun running around with the cousins and getting all of their presents out of the boxes.

Later in the day, Gram and I took some wreaths to put on Gramps grave. I took a broom to get the snow off of his headstone, but someone had already shoveled him out. Then I took Gram back to Lucy's. It was a good Christmas.

We got up about 7:30 Christmas morning and opened presents. Emma didn't quite get how to open her presents, but she made the rounds and just kind of bobbed in front of whoever was opening a present. We had to beg Dylan to open his last 4 presents. Every year we swear we won't go overboard, and every year we do.