About a Joy: Christmas Cheer

2016 has nearly come to an end which means I'm on a deadline to blog about our Christmas. My own deadline of course. The New York Times has not been calling me daily asking for it.

We never made time to do any pre-Christmas outings such as the year we visited a camel or to go see spectacular Christmas lights. But on December 23rd I did receive a phone call telling me that I won an Xbox One S from this sweepstakes I'd entered:

I've decided to make that our new pre-Christmas tradition because it doesn't require any major physical movement. I guess I did pace all around the living room during the phone call. But I was inside where it's warm.
On Christmas Eve we attended the service at our church and then came home so that the boys could enjoy their Christmas Eve tradition of opening their Christmas pajamas and a Christmas movie. That was a whole lot of Christmas in that paragraph.

There's always a new way to pose in Christmas pajamas.

They received Arthur Christmas.

We waited until Christmas morning to put the presents under the tree because midnight rolled around and Dawson was too hyper to sleep.

Evan and Dawson slept in on Christmas morning. Mostly because at about 2 a.m. our house alarm was beeping (beeping -as in a battery was dead or something) which woke up Dawson and he woke up Jason which woke me up. Jason investigated and we have no idea what the beeping was from. The alarm is hardwired so there's no battery. I think this should be an episode on 20/20. The Christmas Eve Mystery. I'd tune in for the title alone.

When we finally go around to making Christmas happen, we had Dawson and Evan take their traditional picture at the top of the stairs.

Then we let them go do their stockings. There's something strange about seeing a fish on a mantel with stockings hanging under it.

Evan got a BB8 (or "baby 8, as he says it) ornament.

Dawson got an out of focus Stormtrooper.

The much anticipated moment finally arrived when it was time to open presents.

I believe the Star Wars franchise made billions this year. I mean wrapping paper?

Evan showed us that he can effectively use his new baseball bat.

He also demonstrated that Darth Vader can wear Christmas jammies and still use the force.

Dawson asked for this Lego set. And he got it.

Evan did not ask for a Hatchimals. However, this crazy toy was like the Cabbage Patch doll of the 80's and I the very last one in Colorado Springs at Target. For days leading up to Christmas I saw this toy selling for hundreds of dollars on ebay and on the local Facebook selling group that I'm a member of. I even took a screenshot as evidence:

So I threw around the idea of selling the one I bought at Target for a nice profit like all of the other folks in my area were keen on doing. I could treat myself to Starbucks. But then I realized that this Hatchimals was the craze of the 2016 Christmas year and I had the golden ticket! I didn't even have to wait in a line! So I kept it and Evan got a Draggle Hatchimals.

Here you can watch it try to hatch:

The obsession with BB8 was far and above any Hatchimals craze for my boys. They both asked for a BB8 this Christmas.

So they each got their wish. I wish BB8 was a kitten though. But this way I'm less allergic.

Dawson almost didn't get his BB8 for Christmas. But thanks to my OCD, the week before Christmas I told Jason I wanted to take an inventory of all of the gifts we'd purchased for the boys to make sure they were EVEN. Parents the world over know exactly what I'm talking about right now. In that process, I picked up the box containing Dawson's BB8 and the box clearly said "EMPTY BOX". I thought it felt a bit light. So I opened the box and there was nothing inside! I called Bed Bath & Beyond and told me they had known it happened but didn't know how to contact me. They assumed they wouldn't hear from me until after Christmas. On Black Friday when they had the deal on those BB8's I had taken the display box to the counter and paid for it, never realizing it was a display only box and it was empty. The cashier didn't know that either, however. So he let me leave with an empty box. Once I called I was able to bring the box in with the receipt and they got me the box I was supposed to receive (which was locked in a vault upstairs at the store!) with an actual BB8 inside. They're nice like that.

Jason got me a New China set, which I have been wanting since we first got married.

Now I can have my friends over and make cucumber sandwiches and drink tea. We couldn't do that before. No China Set, No Tea. I'm sure there's a bumper sticker with that slogan out there somewhere.

I got Jason a cold brew coffee maker. I don't have a picture of him with it though because it can't be used to make cucumber sandwiches.

When Christmas was officially over and every present had been unwrapped, Evan walked up to me and said "Where are the rest of my presents?" like Christmas is an unending day of unwrapping. So I had to explain that Christmas is 5 minutes long. Just like waiting an hour for dinner and you eat in 5 minutes. Same thing.

I wish I had unwrapped a maid: