Early this Christmas morning, here was the seen at our great room, the floor beneath the Christmas tree covered up with gifts and presents just waiting to be opened! Stockings were so full that they could not be hung up anymore, but rather resting there in front of the fireplace. Nana's stocking joined the other three, each filled with candies and surprises.
But the other surprise this year was the dusting of snow outside. It was terribly cold out there, all day long, at least for us. When we were coming home tonight, the temperature was around 24. But inside was warm, and it was just nice to peek outside and see the small dusting of white covering our back porch, the front yard, and the houses throughout the neighborhood, all on Christmas Day. It was magical snow!
Soon enough, we were opening presents this morning. Look at these goodies from the English shop we went to the other day. Nana was happy to get some candy from across the pond. Speaking of which, we got an alarm call from England, with the family there calling to wish us a good Christmas Day. They'd been up and enjoying already, but they're six hours ahead, so they had a pretty decent head start!
Maddie made us all these super nice Christmas cards, one for each of us, each hand-drawn and very thoughtful. She must have been extra special this Christmas, because you can see what she got here below:
Coal. Okay, it's a joke gift. There were a few of those opened this morning, including a itty bitt jug band, a small jug band in a box. Eventually we'll have to play a tune together. But there were plenty of other gifts too, including these gems:
There's no telling how much Baby Yoda merchandise was found under Christmas trees all over the world today. I don't think it can be calculated. Madison got plenty of stuff with Grogu, and then later on today too. But this gift here was a pretty big moment.
She got a loth cat this morning, and that's such an obscure thing. The only place you can get this right now is from Galaxy's Edge, so Santa must have swung by there to pick one up for Madison.
In case the picture above doesn't make it obvious, she loves loth cats. They are from the planet Lothal, the one where Ezra Bridger is originally from. But you'll see them elsewhere, as Din Djarin discovered on another planet. The first live action version of a loth cat appeared in an episode of "The Mandalorian."
Madison got quite a few other plush friends, including a blob fish, of course. His name is Jeff "Blobby" Blobfish. Also, there's another porg to add to the collection as well. This entourage followed her around throughout the day.
It was a nice day today - even our other tree you can see here had a wealth of presents beneath it. These were for later, the ones we took over to my parents house for Christmas night. But in the meantime, there were still so many presents under our own tree left to open. It's a different year, but that's not due to anything related to the pandemic for us. Nana is in the house, and she joined us in person this Christmas morning, seated on the couch as the four of us got different wrapped gifts to open up throughout the morning.
Madison took this picture with her phone of some new socks, and she got some new shirts and pants too. There were all kinds of fashionable presents under the tree, but also there was a new game for the Nintendo, one she was into rather quickly this afternoon.
It was a copy of Animal Crossing. She might be seeing Camille online with that particular game, as you can play against or with other friends with various Nintendo titles. As mentioned earlier, Nana got a few items this morning as well, and as we were opening our gifts, she too was opening hers.
These new slippers are just the thing to keep her feet warm on a cold winter's day. Which was today, in fact! I myself got some new jeans, some records, and several Terry Pratchett books, which was amazing. I'll be reading those deep into the year, I suspect. I'm now nearly complete with the Disc World collection, moving right along with reading each one.
Meanwhile, the other gifts of Christmas were being opened one by one, and all of them were perfectly nice. Mom got pajamas, Madison got this calendar with an obvious theme to it, Madison got books, art supplies, and a Baby Yoda Chia Pet! It was all very nice, seated there as always, listening to our Christmas music and making a big mess of the great room with wrapping paper and squeals of delight with the discovery of this gift or that.
It's Jesus' birthday we celebrate, and as her custom, Mom made a cake today, putting the finishing touches on his birthday cake. As I type this, I can't wait to get another slice of it. I've always thought of this gesture as super touching, a form of worship up there with singing the finest worship songs. She used her gift to create a present for the King of kings, because it's His birthday we're celebrating.
After this, there were games. This card is from the Charlie Brown Christmas board game, and it struck me as funny. But the game is really pleasant fun. We also took turns doing some Grinch themed Mad-libs today. Even Nana got in on the action - we filled in about four of these, and read them aloud, causing a good bit of laughter this afternoon. One of my favorite lines: "Do you know my mom, Bob? You might not have met her; she's always falling all over the place like a blobfish without a gall bladder!"
We spent some time preparing a few more gifts for tonight, and resting a bit too. But soon enough, it was time to head over to the grandparents house for Christmas.
It was a nice time over there, as always a delight for us all to be gathered together once again. The presents were stacked high all over the place, and their home is always so wonderfully decorated.
Ye-Ye created some new arrangements, and there were some new things added to the Christmas collection this year. They had new ornaments on their tree, a live one as they always get.
It looked nice in the corner, with all the familiar ornaments hanging on it, some going back to my childhood still on that tree all these years later. One in particular has been hanging on their tree for fifty years now!
The fire in the fireplace kept going all evening, adding a new source of warmth, as we all gathered around the living room to be together once more. It was great that we all could do it this year, given everyone's schedules and the ongoing events of the world.
We gathered at the table first, and Ye-Ye blessed the food and said a short prayer of thanks, one that was heartfelt by all of us. And then it was time to dig in.
It was a marvelous feast, one Nana was working on all day along with Ye-Ye. It was so very nice for all of us to be together for the holidays.
We had desserts too, including the birthday cake, chocolate cakes, and a cheesecake that was just perfectly put together by Mom. But there were all the other standard cookies and slices of fudge we come to expect each Christmas Eve, the same kinds of cookies we find in bakeries up north, and of course there was marzipan. There's always got to be marzipan.
Next came the gifts! All of them were put in piles in front of everyone, and one by one we opened our presents from one another. Madison did really well today, with more Baby Yoda stuff, and another squishmallow you see here:
She ended up with three of these today. The other one came later on here, but they're all very much appreciated! But there were plenty of different gifts today for everyone, this frenzy of wrapping paper that we see on Christmas Day each year. Watching everyone open their gifts is always a fun pleasure.
I usually don't get that many pictures here because I'm opening my own gifts as well, but today I got to snap a few of the others, and just look around, thankful for the best gift of all: the ability of all of us to be together.
Next, it was time for the white elephant gift exchange. Everyone brought some crazy gifts, and of course the nature of this game is that you can steal one another's gifts, fighting for this or that.
This year, the clown came back! That horrendous gift item from four or five years ago, this ceramic clown that was so disturbing, and yes, I wound up opening it in a surprise bait-and-switch gift presentation. The present looked like something else, something large, and inside was a tiny box. And inside that box was a box that was labeled with something else... and inside that was the surprise! It got huge laughs, because we hadn't seen that clown in over a year.
This one was just horrible - and yet hilarious ! It's a shark. A dead one, of course. And it's properly labeled in a jar. Easily one of the most random things you can give to someone, this item found it's way being traded back and forth as one of the more ridiculous items.
There were lots of laughs tonight, as you just never knew what would be opened next. There was a Dutch version of "Pirates of the Caribbean," a giant cardboard reindeer that you could color in, and the Grinch decoration that Nana purchased a few days ago. This one was a big hit too:
Meet Frank E Post, this light post that sings like Frank Sinatra, and animatronic at least in his eyes and his lips. He blinks and moves his mouth as he sings a few songs, and then he's done. But he was so amazing that I had to pick him up and bring him to the gift exchange.
The gifts were opened, one after the other, and everyone had a great time. Madison opened a squishmallow right away, and of course she wanted to have that. No one challenged her on it, as I believe it was just assumed she was going to wind up with it eventually anyway. That squish mallow was a turtle, so she ended the day with a turtle, a koala, and a Baby Yoda. We had a lot of plush items today. But we also got the clown in the house, so we have that for the year. Aunt Shain wound up with Frank E Post, and I'm not sure who got the shark. Nana had a great time too, getting something we actually brought in ourselves, so it was a bit of recycling there!
Nana had a good Christmas, as best as we could help her have. My family as always was filled with warmth and love, and a great deal of effort was given to show her as much love as we all could. She kept busy with conversation and with gifts and with food too.
We said our goodbyes after several hours together. It was a perfect evening, really. We got home, and there was still some time leftover, so we watched a movie that Mom got me, "The Man Who Invented Christmas." We've seen it a few times, and it's probably going to be a standard from this point on, as it really is a great movie.
It was time for bed after that, time for reading and prayers. We don't have to get up early tomorrow, so there was no concern for what time we went to bed. We read a few more chapters from "The Magician's Nephew," and said our prayers, thanking God for another wonderful Christmas.
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