Link: Christmas 2006 Pictures

Christmas officially begins on Christmas Eve around our house. Growing up, my wife’s family exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve while my family exchanged gifts Christmas Day. After Susan and I got married we initially tried to solve this problem by having her family over for Christmas Eve and my family over Christmas Day, but we ended up inviting my family over anyway on Christmas Eve too and her family stopped by Christmas Day, so these days in our house Christmas begins on Christmas Eve and lasts for two days. On Christmas Eve we throw a big party that both of our familes attend. At that party, everyone exchanges gifts with Susan’s family. The following morning (Christmas Day) we do the traditional Christmas stuff: a visit from Santa, followed by exchanging gifts with my family.

Once again at this year’s Christmas Eve party we had enough food to feed an entire army of Santa’s elves. Susan’s chocolate fondue, served with everything from marshmellows to pretzels, oranges and pineapples, was a success. There were eclairs, deviled eggs, olives … you name it, people brought it and we ate it. (The pre-spiked egg nog wasn’t bad, either.) The size of the party grows a little each year as more people bring more people, but it’s always a fun time, especially for the little ones. Our living room was already knee-deep in gifts and wrapping paper the day before Christmas.

The party wrapped up around 10:30pm, but our night was just beginning. First was Morgan, who decided she did not want to go to sleep. Then Mason, due to a combination of too many chocolate-covered marshmellows and a touch of Morgan’s stomach virus, began crying due to an upset stomach. We gave him some medicine and a slice of bread, neither of which seemed to help. Susan and I began “preparing” the living room around midnight when Mason started crying again. We immediately called off our “covert operations” until he went to sleep. This cat and mouse game continued until around 2:30am, when I finally went into his room and crawled into the bottom bunk of his bunk bed and went to sleep (Mason sleeps on the top bunk). I got around three hours of sleep; at 5:30am, I got up, finished my living-room duties, and then went to lie down in bed next to Susan, about five minutes before Morgan woke up.

Around that time on Christmas morning Dad arrived. We woke Mason who ran out into the living room, looked at everything for ten seconds, and then ran to the bathroom to throw up. He wasn’t the only one with it — both Susan and I had really sore throats by then and were completely wiped out, both from being sick and from getting no sleep. Other than puking, Mason had a great morning. His Spongebob TV/DVD player, RoboRaptor, and Doodle-Monsters were all there, just like he had asked Santa for. Mason did notice the missing RoboReptile and had to be explained that Santa doesn’t always leave every single toy a kid asks for, especially when he asks for a thousand. He seemed okay with that. Morgan was in heaven with all the stuff to play with, although like most 18-month-old chrildren she was often just as satisfied with the wrapping paper and empty boxes as she was with the toys that came in them.

Morgan made it three hours before crashing out. After a crying spell I went to lie her down in her crib. There’s still a spare mattress in her bedroom, so I lied down next to her for a minute. The next thing I know, Susan is waking me up telling me I’ve been asleep for an hour. Whoops! After that Dad prepared his traditional Christmas morning waffles which were delicious as always. Our morning festivities broke up around 11:30am or so, and by noon Mason and I were back asleep (again), this time in my bed, as Morgan napped and Susan both napped and cleaned up a bit.

Around 2pm or so it was time to go visit mom’s house, so we piled into the minivan and drove over to visit. Mason was obviously wiped out during the trip; after opening presents he curled up into a little ball and went back to sleep on mom’s couch. Morgan was feeling a bit better by then and didn’t start feeling rotten again until around dinner time. We stayed at mom’s for a couple of hours, got back home around 5pm, and then all went back to sleep again. Whatever this bug we all caught from Morgan is wipes your butt out. After somehow managing to spend a couple of hours awake, we all went back to bed for the night.