Christmas Day 2011

Once again, I woke first on Christmas morning.  I was pretty thankful that Jack and Casey weren't up at the crazy hour of 4:45am like they were the weekend before in Ocean City.  They woke up around 6:45.  After that it was pure torture for Jack to wait for Daddy to check and see if Santa came and for Auntie and Wally to show up even though it was only a few minutes.  In the days preceding Christmas he kept asking if Daddy really needed to make sure Santa came...couldn't he just go downstairs and see everything himself?

Jack's big present from Santa was a rod hockey game and Casey's was a princess castle.  They both loved these gifts and if you ask them what their favorite present is, they'll say hockey game and castle.  These gifts were both Daddy Santa's ideas and then there were several other gifts that Mommy Santa procured.  I probably put a little too much thought into all these gifts, but I like to get something that they want, something they've never even thought about but that I'm sure they'll like and a game.

Casey spent the morning playing with her princess castle, dressing her paper dolls from Auntie Mary, playing the flute, pushing her babies around in her new double stroller from Auntie Jenn and watching me build her Lego bus and pizza place from Grampie & Grammie.  She dressed in her new grey polka dot tutu skirt and a pretty princess shirt.

Jack challenged anyone and everyone to a game of rod hockey while wearing his prison-suit-orange Flyers sweatsuit and his Flyers jersey.  He set Pat to work building his Lego jet plane and later his Lego Space Shuttle Launching Station from Grampie & Grammie.  He also spent a lot of time with his Action Agent Spy Train and Battleship.  Auntie got him some Legos from Cars 2 and Jack intently put all those together himself.  (Yes, the house is being taken over by Legos.)

I kind of just wanted to sit and play with the toys, or at least just sit, all afternoon, but Jenn and I got to work preparing our Christmas feast - pancetta wrapped beef tenderloin, delmonico potatoes, green beans and honey glazed carrots.  It was all delicious but whatever I make next year is going to be super simple so I can just sit and relax on Christmas day.  Oh and I tried a cranberry cream pie that was a big failure...most likely due to my attempt to substitute some flavored jello for a packet of plain gelatin.  It tasted all right but it never set and was more of a cranberry cream soup.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas shopping was helping the kids pick out gifts for each other.  Casey got Jack a Boba Fett helmet (Star Wars character) and a Lightning McQueen color changer.  Jack got Casey her very own nerf gun and some Hello Kitty Legos.  Just before bedtime, there was an intense Star Wars battle throughout the house.  Casey was Princess Leia which she mentioned YELLED a few dozen times.  Jack was Boba Fett and Daddy and Auntie were taking aim at anyone that moved with their nerf guns.  It was a good way to work off the pie (and the dinner)!

It was really a great Christmas.  The kids were both really excited and they still like and play with everything they received.  Plus, it was awesome to have both my parents and my sister and her fiancee here to watch it all unfold.

We also got this great family picture and somehow even Tugger is looking at the camera and smiling!