Part II-Christmas Day

On Christmas morning, I got up with the boys, and Eric slept in a bit. Our plan was to go to my mom and dad's house after they were done with church. He was very certain that the first mass was at 9:30. I thought that seemed kind of late, so I looked up the Christmas schedule on the church website. The first mass was at 8:00. So that meant that they would be ready for us to come over by nine. It was 7:50 when I checked. I hustled the boys into the bath, then got myself ready. Eric didn't see what my hurry was, but got himself ready, too.

We went over to Mom and Dad's and my sister Kelly and her family were there. They had gone to church with my parents. They are not Catholic, but you may remember that my nephew Kyle is obsessed about Father Steve. If not, you can read about it HERE. Apparently, Father Steve gave Kyle two high fives. One when he dodged up to the front with Mom and Dad during communion, and another time while Father Steve was walking out at the end. And he got a hug after chruch. As Kyle would say, "Father Steve's a good guy."

Anyway, back to my parents' house. We let the kids open their presents right away. Drew and Blake went in the other living room between gifts, but as soon as they were told it was their turn, they came right in. They had fun opening gifts. We adults opened gifts next. There was lots of laughing and fun. We had lunch which consisted of way too much food. But, there was something for everyone. And then some. Kelly and Tony had to hurry to get to his family's house in time for gift opening, so I offered to help Mom clean up the kitchen. Eric loaded up the car with our goodies, and broght them home while Mom and I did dishes. Dad occupied the kids.

After that, we headed to Eric's mom and dad's house. On the way, Blake was happy to play with his Slinky, and Drew played with his new watch from Grandma and Grandpa V. We got to Eric's parents' house and most everyone else was already there. We sat around eating snacks and waited for my niece Ashley and her man Jeremy to arrive. Shortly after they arrived, we opened presents. The boys were still into the whole opening thing. Last year by Christmas afternoon, they were tired of opening presents. Not so this year. They got lots of piratey stuff from Aunt Annette and Uncle Ed. And Uncle Mark gave Blake a Ratatouille DVD. Grandma and Grandpa M. gave them a DVD player!

We hung out for awhile and then it was time to eat. Again, there was way too much. I limited myself to stuffed pasta shells and potato salad. Both very good. But by that time, I had pretty much filled myself up on other goodies. Somewhere around this time, my brother in law Chris called. I talked to him first, but Blake was attacking me and I had to pass him off too quickly. From that point, everyone took turns talking to Chris. Only a few minutes per person, but I think all total it was an hour for Chris. After that, Mark had a game for us to play. It was like a white elephant gift thing, except he provided all the gifts. It was amusing.

We got home around 8:30 in the evening, put the boys to bed, took toys out of their monstrous packaging and collapsed. It was a lovely holiday.

Here are some pics:







Again, for all the pictures, click HERE