We started out our celebration on Saturday morning at home. Max woke up first and came to bring us downstairs. He stopped short on the landing as soon as he saw his Christmas gift: an easel! "Wow.... Wow! What is that? Wow!" He slowly circled it, examining the whiteboard and the chalkboard, and asked us where the markers were. Thankfully, Louie woke up soon after and Max was able to open his gift from Grandma and Grandpa Yantes: a full art supply set to go with his easel! Markers, paints, chalk, paper, paintbrushes, you name it! He opened the dry erase markers and didn't leave his post in front of the easel until he had to get ready to go to Grandma and Grandpa Radecki's house, several hours later. Louie opened a set of Automoblox, a new book and an indoor hockey set (guess whose idea that was? Oh, and of course Max got a matching one). We ate a leisurely breakfast and slowly got ready to head down to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas Eve.
We arrived in Burnsville in the midafternoon with a trunk full of goodies: presents, cookies, mulled wine makings. My mom's parents were already there, and after unpacking we quickly settled in to the first of many games of Buck Euchre. The game went so long that we weren't able to finish it before it was time for Mass! We got the kiddos all dressed and headed to the church, where we celebrated Jesus' birth in the best way possible.
After Mass, we went home for our traditional Christmas Eve Clam Chowder, followed by present time... made even sweeter by Paul's addition of Hot Port (a new take on mulled wine, definitely a keeper! Not that I got to have nearly as much as I wanted... I had to get by on one small half-glassful). My mom tried something new this year: wrapping all her presents in reusable or recyclable wrapping! What a great idea; we ended up with only one small bag of garbage among all of us.
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| Someone had an encounter with some glitter... |
Max was so excited for the next day that bedtime took about two hours! As we sat around the table playing cards late into the night, we were visited by a little boy nearly every twenty minutes, claiming to be thirsty or needing help getting the duplos out of his jammies that he had found and "accidentally" stuck in his shirt. Finally my mom went upstairs to tuck him in and later we found them both sound asleep in bed... all it took was snuggling with grandma to finally get him to sleep!
The next morning started way too early; even after his VERY late night, Max was too excited to sleep in, so we were all up at about seven to check stockings and celebrate Max's birthday! We put candles into a hazelnut sweetbread for him to blow out, then on to more presents. (how is this kid ever going to come down from this craziness??)
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| "Me and Jesus have the same birthday!" |
After dancing off some of their sugar buzz with Grandma and Grandpa, the boys were ready to head home. We decided to do some Christmas light touring on our way home, but Max barely stayed awake long enough to see anything! We pointed out a huge lit-up tree to him as he was drifting off, and he managed to shake himself awake slurring, "What's a tree...." before heading back to dreamland.
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| Dancing to Christmas tunes |
Yesterday the celebrating continued with my dad's side of the family, where I forgot to bring my camera. Thankfully my aunt got some great pictures and I hope to get a hold of them eventually and share them with you. It was a great time, including a meal of soup and corn bread, more gifts, and an intense game of Bowls (My aunt and I totally rocked it!).
Today has been a day of decompression, playing with the truckload of new toys that have overtaken our living room. It was a crazy few days, but what joy to be able to spend it with family!
Merry Christmas everyone!
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