2015 Day 25 - Merry Christmas

Got up at the regular time and walked around turning on the lights on the tree, mantle etc before getting PJ up.

I noticed that Santa had arrived, as promised!

 PJ got up and seemed excited, peeked down the stairs but decided that he wanted to do his morning routine and lay, all covered up and cozy, in front of his morning TV shows.  I managed to get him to cooperate for a photo or 2 by the tree before he went back to his routine.

Graeme and I were up already with cameras ready to roll and he was having NONE of it...so we started getting our coffee.

Just as our coffee was ready, he finally came down and read Santa's letter.

Then he was a blur or wrapping paper as he opened his stocking stuffers and we watched.  He loved this green thing, it made sounds and he said "I wonder if Uncle Dean will like this?" (another 'warm the heart' moment).  He got some red lollipops but the big surprise in the toe this year was a card and coins for his favourite arcade games.

After he finished with his gifts, he started helping Dad with his and once it was all done, we had breakfast, Graeme had a shower and we all got dressed.

Finally at the tree and we opened all our gifts before my parents and brother arrived.  PJ never once hid when Uncle Dean arrived.  We carried up their gifts and put them under the tree and expected to start opening them but PJ wanted to show his Santa gifts to everyone.  My brother stayed upstairs by the tree thinking that PJ wouldn't want him to come down...and to HIS HUGE SURPRISE, PJ said..."where's Uncle Dean, I want to show him my gifts!" (Another 'warm the heart' part of the holidays).  My brother was stunned and jumped up and ran downstairs to look at the gifts.

We eventually went upstairs for gift opening and all had a great time looking at everyone's gifts.  PJ was a blur of paper but did a great job reading gift tags and handing gifts to recipients, as well as cleaning up wrapping paper for recycling.

Then we had pizza buns for lunch

My family left (Dean & Dad slept while Mom made dinner).  We got dressed and went to visit Lee at her new place and gift her our Christmas presents.  Afterwards, off to my parent's place for a yummy turkey dinner.  PJ chose the seating order again this year...he wanted to sit beside Uncle Dean! <3

2014 Day 25 - Merry Christmas

I got up at my regular time, made a final check that everything was good, turn on all the Christmas trees, took a photo of the tree and Santa's letter and went to wake up kiddo.  GJA was up already and had the video camera ready.

He wasn't sleepy at all and the 1st thing he said when he got out of bed was - I wonder if Santa came?   I said...I don't know, let's go look.  Instead of his normal morning routine, he actually DID go down stairs to look to see if Santa came.  He looked at the tree in the bonus room and said - wow, look at the presents.  We continued down to the main floor. 

He said, what's that (while looking at the main Santa gift)...I didn't ask Santa for that.  I said - you didn't ask Santa for anything, so he had to bring something he hoped you would like.  We played with it a bit while trying to keep him from ripping open the stocking gifts.  I did let him open one...one that would go with the unwrapped gift.  Then I asked him if we should look to see if Santa left a note - which he did - and he ate the cookies and drank the milk.  I got him to read the note from Santa.  I noticed that it was the exact same writing we had on our Christmas morning Santa letters - he MUST be real!

Then we went upstairs for a photo with the tree - he was so excited! He grabbed a gift under the tree and was ready to open it.  I said - read the tag to see who its for.  He said - its to Dad and it from ME, so I can open it.  WHOA big guy....as he started to open it.

Look how tall my little cutie pie is!

Lee came up and wanted to have her bath, but we convinced her to open stocking gifts first so PJ would get to have some early morning Christmas fun and THEN she could have her bath...no point us all taking our showers at different times and prolong getting to the REAL task at hand!  Kiddo was super excited with pretty much each item he opened.  At the toe of the stocking, like last year, was his favourite treat - red lollipops...which he pulled out, counted and lined up so we could all see his 10 lollipops.

 

He wanted SO BADLY to go and unwrap the other gifts, but I told him that we wanted to eat breakfast and that we all had to be dressed before we open those gifts.  Both Lee and GJA went for their baths and I sat down with a Cinnamon coffee (thanks for the new k-cups, Santa).  Finally we were able to have our panettone.  PJ decided he didn't want breakfast...not a great idea, but he wouldn't cooperate to eat.  While we waited and waited for the other two, I took some more photos of him by the tree.

 

 

Finally everyone was fed and dressed and we went to open gifts.  He pulled out gifts from under the tree and they were both to ME from HIM so he decided that since his name was on it, that he could open it...NOT!  He grabbed one with his name on it and was ready to rip into it...so I told him that he had to find one gift for each person before he could open his....which he did.  He continued to be the present distributor the entire morning.  He was really excited about each of his presents.


My parents and brother came just as we were finishing our own gift opening - so then we re-loaded up the tree with their gifts and went at it again!  We ooh'd and aah'd at everyone's gifts and then went and made fuzzy navels and started getting ready for lunch while my brother assembled gifts and my parents played games with PJ.  Since he didn't have any ideas of what he wanted, I took a chance and chose a bunch of games (Operation, Trouble, air hockey & Foosball) - all of which were a huge hit - he enjoyed them and engaged with us while playing it and asked us to play with him.  So cool - normally he grabs his electronic devices and plays by himself!

After lunch was eaten, it was time for my parents to leave to get the turkey in the oven.  Before dinner, 2 of the people in our house went for a 2 hr nap & I was going to work on photos...but I was tired too, since I had stayed up until 2 am on too many recent nights to wrap gifts, so I tried to nap too.

 

 

 

 

It was SO GREAT that he was excited about the day - maybe he WILL have fond memories of Christmas, just like I did!

Then, assemble all the sleepy people and head on over to my parent's place.  Everyone cooperated for photos with silly Christmas Cracker crowns on and the kiddo even stayed sitting for the entire meal!  Had a lovely turkey dinner with all the trimmings, sat and chatted for awhile, then off home to put them all to bed.

 

 

It was a fantastic day as far as I was concerned - my boy STILL believes!

Merry Christmas to ME!

Christmas's Past - Day 25 - Christmas Day 2010

Here's the tree with all the gifts underneath - Santa was a busy boy!

PJ was very excited to see the train all setup and ready to play with.  Santa is so smart, bringing him a train!

We managed to get him away from the train long enough to get dressed & then move onto his Santa Stocking.

While we were waiting for my parents, Dean &Tanya to arrive, we moved upstairs to work on the gifts under the tree.

We also had lunch and then relaxed for a bit.

My family left around 2ish so they could start the turkey (and so PJ could have his nap).  Once he was awake, we packed up and went to my parent's place - Here's their tree:

The table looked fantastic with its blue & silver table runner.  We all had our Christmas cracker and put on our silly hats.  It wouldn't be Christmas without it.  PJ managed to keep his on long enough for a photo...but it took a lot of tries to get the photo taken before he pulled it off.  The food was fantastic - turkey, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, carrots, brussel sprouts etc!

My brother doesn't come to visit very often, so PJ is a little afraid of him (but knows who he is and can name him in photos).  After a long LONG time of trying not to approach PJ, Dean started playing peek-a-boo with him and chasing him down the hallway - finally, Uncle Dean is fun...just when its time to leave (and for him to go back to his city).