Christmas Day

Begrudgingly, I arose on Christmas Day at 5 a.m. I did not want to get up that early but there were camera batteries to charge and a toy not working crisis. After those two issues were rectified we had to figure out how to blow up Marshall's jumpy thing which was from Santa. It is about 6X6X6 but not one of the fancy ones with an external device that blows it up. We scrambled to find the air mattress pump but settled for the hair dryer. This humongous thing now resides in our rec room upstairs. (The jumpy thing, not the hair dryer!) Neither of us are happy about toys all over the house but we have succumbed to the fact that we do have kids and having toys everywhere is just part of it.

The boys woke up around 7 and thank goodness did not head straight downstairs. I like to be ready with the video camera and film them coming down the steps. It is actually kind of cool the way it all works. Our steps exit into the living room in the back of the house instead of greeting you at the front door....I hate that. So, as they come downstairs they descend upon the tree with all of Santa's presents around it. Sounds corny but I like it. What sucks about Michael getting older is 1. This is most likely our last Christmas with 'Santa' because he is asking a boatload of questions. 2. Presents get smaller and more expensive the older kids get....to them it does not seem like they get near as much stuff.

After the boys opened presents, both sets of grandparents came over to visit, eat and watch the boys play. Later that day I decided to tackle dismantling the upstairs tree. This is the artificial one with all of the Peanut ornaments. Marshall was OK with what was happening until I put the tree in the box and started to carry it downstairs. He was crying and saying..."No, my tree." Heartbreaking, I know but if you only knew how many decorations I have to take down......you would understand why I have to do it piecemeal. He was over it quickly.

In closing, I have included some Christmas Day pictures. The first one is at breakfast.....next, Michael throwing the Frisbee upstairs (yes, it is possible to throw a Frisbee inside.....last, the jumpy thing in it's temporary home. We are moving it another part of the room so we can still play pool in the winter. As of now, it is an obstacle for pool playing and to get into the boy's playroom. The sacrifices we make! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.