Here I am once again on New Year's Eve writing about our Christmas. It's practically become a tradition!
Since Mark's extended family were celebrating elsewhere this year, we had just a small gathering at my in-law's house. I didn't take a whole lot of photos, but here are a few of my nephews Noah and Jacob acting cute.
When Lauren woke up Christmas morning, she thought all these presents were hers too. She was disappointed to learn truth: Mommy and daddy also give each other gifts. Somehow, she has overlooked this fact during her last nine Christmases.
Of course that disappointment was fleeting once she started opening her own gifts (Pj's courtesy of cousins Nick and Noreen).
Look at that happy face! Why is she so excited?
Because she got a tablet case. But she doesn't have a tablet. Yet.
Where could it be...
Found it!
It was actually the last gift that she opened. We took a page out of
A Christmas Story and hid it towards the back of the tree like a BB gun.
Kitty Coco finally gets rewarded for guarding the presents all night.
As usual, there was lots of present opening on Christmas night. This guy was peeking out of a gift bag for Mark. I thought he was a long lost relative or something.
Here's Mark digging in.
To summarize, Mark got lots of nuts and car wash supplies.
Lauren got really excited when Pappy told her she pick out a chamois to clean her iPad mini screen.
I got an ice blue hand mixer - YAY!
Aunt Phyllis was my latest victim in the great Takeya iced tea maker giveaway. It's a really awesome product!
Here's Mel C with her UGG boots, or so she thinks. Many of the ladies at work, including myself, wear them, and she's made it clear to me how much she loathes them. I've been leading her to think that I was going to get her a pair for Christmas.
But of course, I would not do that to my BFF.
Inside, she got a nice soft throw blanket, a nail polish set, a card game and some really lewd sticky notes that she's holding up here.
Speaking of lewd, it was time for Uncle Craig's gift. But first, we have to reenact a scene from the Godfather.
This is my Pap Pap's ring. There's a whole story about how it was likely stolen (Not by my grandfather, but by the guy that sold it to him.), but we won't get into that. We had a good time teasing Mark about how he was going to inherit it and be the next Don of the family.
Do we know how to honor our Godfather, or what?
Yes, they really are IN 3D!!!! It is unfortunate that you have to look like Where's Waldo while enjoying the nudes.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree in this family, does it? I mean, what kid can resist the magic of 3D?
Moving on back to the PG part of the story, here's Grandma hiding behind her new pjs
But she was really excited to get a corno charm for her Pandora bracelet.
And lastly, here's Pappy opening his two tablets - a custom one with pages printed with Kitty Roxy's photos and a Kindle Fire.
I think that finally wraps it up! Back in September, I was thinking about how Christmas was just around the corner and questioning if I had the energy to do it all again. Nonetheless, I had nothing to worry about because a wonderful Christmas came together in the end.
