Christmas 2012 was a nice ending to a great year.
It started off with a technological first. We all know that Santa is a very busy man on Christmas Eve, but for the past 51 years, he has been able to spend a little extra time with families in Virginia Beach. My parent’s Christmas party is always a final stop before he begins making his rounds.
Since we wouldn’t be there this year to see Santa, he ditched his fear of technology and set up a Skype call with Nolin and Grace. Nolin was floored. He never noticed that the picture of Santa froze (although the sound was still there), and after the call was over he kept asking if we could call Santa again.
I have to admit at 2.5 years old, it must be pretty cool to have a direct line to the big man.
That night before we went to bed, Nolin saw Santa and Rudolf in our neighborhood, and was determined to get to sleep quickly so that he wouldn’t miss our house.
Christmas morning Santa came and although I think we thought we would keep Christmas simple this year, that didn’t really happen. There were a ton of presents for Nolin and Grace. Grace had a little help opening hers and seemed more interested in observing the chaos.
Nolin on the other hand would open one gift and start playing with it. Making the gift opening process quite long. Finally we decided we would extend Christmas and give him a few presents each day. Besides he seemed more interested in his dollar store airplanes than anything else.
After breakfast and Nolin’s triumphant return to Church we went back to the house to clean up and regroup. I have to give Nolin creativity points for his performance in Church. He would do his best to change out responsorial hymns with Swiper No Swiping At Christmas (a line from Dora) and he even had to pat himself on the back as he looked at me and said wow that one was tricky.
While we were home we Skyped with my parents and sister and got caught up on their Christmas adventures. Nolin now realized that there were more presents and began bringing them all over to open in front of my parents. This worked out because it allowed them to be part of our Christmas.
After an awesome Turkey dinner we went on a Christmas light tour. We arrived in a clown car. Teresa and I up in the front, Jenn & Kevin squished in the third row seats and poor Don stuck in between Grace and Nolin in the back seat.
At one point Grace was crying because she was ready to be outside. Not to be outdone, Nolin decided to counteract her cries with festive Christmas carols sung at the top of his lungs. Don did his best to appease Grace. At this point you had a few choices:
- Do nothing and try to tune out the chaos
- Try to quite Nolin and restore peace in the car
- Turn Nolin children’s song CD up louder to drown out the chaos (which after 10,000 listens could also make you go crazy)
I chose none of the above. Instead, I kept egging Nolin on to sing louder. I then informed everyone that we were simply living the dream.
Once you got past the ringing in your ears, the light tour was a success and we all called it an early night.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this Christmas magical for our family and I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season!
Our Modern Family 