A Christmas In Five Parts

Well, now that I have a chance, meaning time to type and the internet connection all to myself, I can prattle on about Christmas. It did indeed unfold in five parts:

1. At Home - Christmas Morning

Very nice, the boy didn't get up until 9 am, so we all had a chance to sleep in a bit. I know it won't always be this way, so I'm enjoying it while I can. Just me, Mrs. Dave and the little boy. He was funny. It took a lot of prying to get him to move from one gift to the next. When he opened one, he wanted to play with it then. But, he eventually got the hang of it. Lots of Thomas the Tank Engine stuff. He's played with it a LOT since Christmas. What was really funny was that when we showed him that Santa had come and eaten the cookies we left out for him, he started crying, thinking that Santa had taken his cookies from him! Mean ol' Santa! :-)

2. In-Laws Family Confab - Christmas Afternoon

We went to the in-laws in the afternoon. It was a nice time. We got to see my niece, whom we haven't seen in a while. Little boy got a box chock full of Fisher Price Zoo animals and such and a magna-doodle, cool! Mrs. Dave's cousin Melissa showed us her new digital photo printer. It's an Epson 320 (I think), but it really rocked. So many of the digital photo printers I've seen stink, but this one printed nice crisp bright and colorful images from 3 megapixel shots. If I only had a digital camera, now... But, we had a nice dinner and took one seriously tired, but happy little boy home to bed.

3. My Mom's - Day after Christmas Morning

Headed up to York, PA to visit my mom (for those who don't know, my folks split up a while ago.) My sister and her husband were there too. They also have a little boy who is two months older than ours. He is also big-time into Thomas the Tank Engine and had a bunch of track and cars out. So, needless to say, they both had a grand time. When present time came, both little boys were inundated with cool stuff. In addition to Thomas T-shirts, he got a Thomas pop-up tent. It's one of those springy coil things like for you car windshield when it's hot, except this is in the 3-D shape of Thomas! How much cooler can you get for a 2.5 year old? Not much! Once again, we left with a very tired, but decidedly happy young man.

Here he is in the tent:


Here's a little wider shot:


And this is my niece. She's had a rough 2.5 years on earth. She always looks so lost.



4. Mrs. Dave's Parents - Tuesday after Christmas

Since there wasn't a lot of space at the other inlaw confab, we got together with Mrs. Dave's parents and my niece on Monday. It was just the six of us, and since her parents gave us an oven for Christmas that we received a few weeks before, we didn't get anything then (not that there's anything wrong with that!) But we were there mainly for the kids anyway. Little boy got more Thomas stuff and a huge Matchbox Fire Engine that holds a ton of cars, makes lots of noise and can be driven about. All kinds of fun.The kids had a really good time together.

5. My Dad's - Wednesday after Christmas

My dad and his girlfriend came down to visit on Wednesday. We had a nice dinner and enjoyable night. Dad didn't get on the Thomas bandwagon, which is fine. He got the little boy a Craftsman junior carpenter workbench. It has pegboard, hooks and holes to hold everything, plus a drill and flashlight. If you should have a reason, it packs up into the size of a small suitcase, too! He also got a circular saw to go with it, but the bigger deal were the dump truck and bulldozer he got. Those were major fun. The dump truck can easily hold all of the extra screws, etc. from the workbench, and can carry most of the Thomas trains he has. So, without official endorsement, that was his Bob the Builder Christmas.

So, now we have a boy that never wants to use the restroom or go to bed because he has so many cool new toys! That's ok though. He's so much fun to watch as he creates all kinds of different adventures for his vehicles. One thing my wife and I agreed on early was that we wanted to but toys that didn't have all the fun for our son. We wanted toys that stirred his imagination, and so far it has really worked. Those trains find all kinds of peril on the couch and help each other out very politely "Thank you, Toby!" "Good job, Percy!" "Hi Guys, how ya doing?" It really is fun.

Well, I've written a lot more than I intended and I wanted to keep this short!

Hope you had a great Christmas as well! Happy new year!

Dave