A Merry Christmas Day

Friday, December 25th
Christmas Day dawned and, unlike the days I remember from my kids' childhood, most folks slept in. Except for Alex of course. Although awake, he was content to delay opening gifts and just hang out with his dad doing puzzles and coin banks. The presents beneath the base of the tree in the living room were opened at a slow pace, later in the morning.

Pajamas are the accepted attire for gift opening. Yay!

A real hit was Vivian's cow-themed rolling suitcase from Grandma and Grandpa, called a Trunki. Vivian is a veteran traveler at her young age and this will be put to good use as an efficient packing aid and fun toy. It is sized to fit on board as a carry-on and to pass through the security scanners at the airports. It can be rolled or pulled or propelled by kids' feet push power or, alternatively, carried by handle or shoulder strap.

Vivian opened up her barnyard-themed quilt that came with a set of four hand puppets; a sheep, a cow, a pig, and a horse (not shown).

From Frank I got the promise of a bright sunshine yellow, cute as a button, Minion bowling ball, to be purchased and custom drilled after Christmas.

Dan and Carrie also gave me the game of Blokus and the promise to play it later that evening.

Blokus is the perfect strategy game for the whole family - less than a minute to learn with the depth to challenge all ages. As players take turns placing their 21 pieces on the board, each piece played must touch another piece of the same color, but only at the corners. Stake your claim and protect your territory by fitting as many of your pieces on the board as you can while you strategically block your opponents. - per Amazon

That night Carrie won a game and Dan won a game. The torch has definitely been passed to a new generation. We played additional games but I do not recall who won. It probably was not me or I'd be gloating.

Alex got a set of Catseye™ toiletry bags to use when he goes to camp or travels with us. They have realistic photos of bunnies on them. Rabbits are kind of a thing for Alex, to say the least.

Alex was pleased to get a replacement pirate ship puzzle. The images on his original are barely visible, so worn off are they from Alex's many, many, assemblies and disassemblies of this favorite tray puzzle.

Alex certainly liked his new puzzle and worked on it repeatedly a good deal of the afternoon.

After opening gifts, Dan and Vivian set out to make cut-out cookies. I was amazed and impressed at how focused Vivian was on the task. Her attention span was impressive for a 20-month-old. She and Dan did all the cookies. I did not need to step in at all.

Carrie helped when detail work was needed. I love that when she spends the holidays with us she wears her jaunty Santa hat for the holiday festivities like lighting luminaries on Christmas Eve, opening presents on Christmas morning, and in this case, cutting out Christmas cookies.

So I could kick back a bit, we bought a ready made holiday meal from a local restaurant, Shari's. After my learning curve with doing this at Thanksgiving, discussed in my post for November 27th, I knew what to expect and the heating up part was no longer a big deal. Since Alex likes ham, I added it to the pre-order as well as turkey. It was too much meat. Today is the Twelfth Day of Christmas and it is still lingering in the refrigerator. Our dog Daphne is going to have a treat because I did not have the foresight to freeze some of it.

But everyone enjoyed what we did eat on Christmas Day.

There were lots of goodies to spare. This is the largest box of chocolates I have ever seen. It was given to me by the literacy student I volunteer to tutor at our local library. Huge as it was, starting on Christmas Eve, we managed to devour it by the Third Day of Christmas. I do not know about French Hens, but there were plenty of us fat and happy ones around here.

At the end of the day we posed for a group photo. This was taken by Carrie's cell phone on a timer. I am wearing Vivian's Olivia beret after my unsuccessful attempt to get it on her head before the timer went off. Everyone is smiling. Amazing. Merry Christmas!