Christmas 2008

Christmas! I’d set the alarm for 8am, since this time we weren’t going to be up super early and hardly any of the family was going to come over till much, much later. The boys, however, were awake by 7 and Mary waited to call till 7:45, when they couldn’t contain themselves anymore. Mario wanted to take a quick shower and of course they were complaining ’cause they had to wait so long for Mario. Mary and I tried to stall by separating everyone’s presents (mainly theirs) into piles for easy opening. As I was getting ready to set up the baby monitors Alaethia woke up and Mario was finally ready. The boys opened their presents first and I’m so happy that they were happy with their Santa gifts and gifts from us and everyone else. They actually asked for “small” gifts from Santa this year (Jaylen – the whole Pixos set and Eenan the Nintendogs Chihuahua DS game), which Santa really appreciated because he was on a budget this year ;).

They mostly got DS games, movies (Wall-e and Kung-Fu Panda on Blu Ray!), art stuff, and lots of science lab stuff. They even got an awesome microscope/computer kit (that Jaylen became too over-eager opening and cut his finger with a tool). Mona out-did herself; she got the boys some really nice Transformers toys and a blanket and froggy (that really croaks!) for Alaethia. The boys finished with their gifts and went on their merry way to play with everything.

Next it was Alaethia’s turn. I was a little upset because Elda grabbed her and helped her open presents while Mario took video. It sounds whiny and childish, but I wanted to be the one to sit with her and open presents. That’s something I should have been doing with her. That, and I never have pictures of myself with the kids, ever, unless I ask someone to take them. But anyway.

Alaethia loved her My First Dollhouse from Santa she wanted to open all of her accessories right away and play. She also loved her Hello Kitty from John, the giant Care Bear from us and the stroller from us. She promptly stuffed the big Care Bear in there and gave her a ride in the stroller.

Andy and Noelia got there and she opened her treasure chest from them. It was almost like an actual treasure chest, filled with tons of girlie accessories and a super soft Tinkerbell blanket I wanted to steal for myself LOL.

I loved all of my gifts. Mario and I didn’t get each other anything big (he got me two DVDs I’d been wanting and I got him a knife). Mary went all out as usual. She got me the first 3 Twilight books, City of Angels on DVD (which I’d have to exchange since that’s one of the ones Mario bought me), slippers, boxers, Mrs. Doubtfire on DVD and a beautiful butterfly necklace. Grandpa surprised all of us by giving every single member of the family cash, including my mom and brother! I felt so emotional when I opened that envelope and then learned he’d included Mom and John. I totally signed into Ebay later and ordered Batteries Not Included for myself (and that was all I bought really, for $7.35).

Mario made some Mexican hot chocolate and it was delicious. I had like, 3 glass-fulls. I don’t think we had any breakfast just so we could make space for all the delicious turkey, gravy and the trimmings. It was like Thanksgiving all over again!

We chilled out the rest of the day enjoying the kids and each other and their new gifts. Alaethia was amazingly entertained by her stuff! I tried organizing her room as best as I could, to make room for all her new stuff. We still had some girl-ifying to do to her room, heh.

Will add pictures to this entry soon.