Christmas 2012

My Christmas was made in the first few waking moments when I heard Oliver's voice call out in the stillness of the house, "Hey guys! Come here! Santa brought me a dump truck!". Oliver had made his way downstairs to the tree to check out the presents without waking anyone, which is a pretty amazing feat considering that whomever is first to wake has two large, excited dogs beating their tails on the walls.

But, he managed to make it downstairs and see that indeed Santa had come. We all made our way downstairs, grabbed a cup of coffee and let the gift-giving commence.

Oliver and the dump truck, which was a present from Aunt Deanna.

Underneath the tree was a giant, green dump truck. Oliver loved it. He did manage to open his second gift, a Hot Wh*eels racetrack, which he loved, and presents were done for Oliver. He had had enough. Forget opening Santa's present or anything else. He and PaPaw set out to assemble the track.

Chloe went directly for the small gift from Santa. She was convinced she knew what was inside.She was right.

Chloe with her cell phone.

 We have been debating the cell phone issue, which Chloe has been fairly relentless in telling us every time a friend got a cell phone. "She was the only one without one!". Yea, right. But, believe it or not, MANY do have them, a larger percentage with than without. We also considered Chloe's before and after-school activities and the fact that soon we may have another little one to wrangle, which means I cannot always stay for swim practice and will have to drop and go.

 After some convincing, Oliver did eventually open the rest of his gifts. In increments. I was beginning to think that I should just take the unopened gifts and put them in the attic until his birthday in June.

 But, the one gift he kept mentioning, his Nin*ja Turtle figures hadn't been opened. Finally, in what took several hours, Oliver managed to open all his presents--success!! (And, yes, we will be limiting the number of presents next year--one from each family member and not wrapping a few for Oliver, who seemed really annoyed by wrapping paper). Chloe had managed to open all her presents, empty her stocking and have her phone fully charged and filled with contacts before Oliver finished.

Playing with the dump truck and the Ninj*a Turtles with Daddy.

 Chloe's other "big" present was her painted helmet. We had purchased her a new, white helmet late in the summer and we had discussed with Chloe that we would eventually have her helmet painted, knowing all along that we would have it painted for Christmas. This was planning and back and forth trips to the painter/designer (who is a friend from the P*orsche Club). Matt and I were super-excited about it. But, on Christmas Eve, Chloe was looking at photos on my phone from the snow-fall we were getting that night and she discovered the helmet photos I had taken and emailed to Matt when I picked up the finished helmet the week before. The cat was out of the bag.

Chloe's helmet matches her chosen race colors: neon pink, neon green and yellow. She also wanted the U.S. flag and the Chinese flag on her helmet. She was happy to see that Jose, who had designed and painted the helmet, added a little purple to the bottom of the helmet.

It was a happy Christmas. All our snow the night before was gone in the morning and we are now left with boxes and toys all over the house. 

Happy Christmas!!!