Tuesday, December 26th, 2006.
Of all the gifts Ben got yesterday, he probably loves his drum kit the most.
Amy and I are pretty weird in the fact
that the noisy kid toys don't bother us. I look at it as just part of the
gig. I had a drum kit as a
pre-teen and always appreciated the fact that my parents never gave me any grief
over it. Another of Ben's favorite Santa gifts is the Booty Shakin' Santa. He
dances, then says "Are you ready for this?" before spinning around to shake his
hiney. Ben pushes the button, then plays his drums while Santa dances.
Our nephews Wesley and Jesse stayed with us on Christmas Eve, which meant that
we had twice as many boys for Santa to deliver toys to. Our living room
was packed with remote controlled cars, snow sleds, game stations, super heroes,
dinosaurs and the like.
We
had a great time at my grandmother's house on Christmas Eve, visiting and dining
with family. The food was awesome of course and it was fun watching little
Maddie and Autumn walk around. Jackson played the White Elephant game with
me for the first time and enjoyed it so much that he's already planning for next
year's game. We got back a little later than normal, but had just enough
time to prep for Santa before Sherri and the boys arrived. We put the
carrots on the sidewalk and the milk and cookies, plus Jackson's traditional
Christmas pickle, on the hearth. Jackson put the towel down in front of
the fireplace for Santa to wipe his boots on. He started doing that last
year and enjoys seeing Santa's footprints. The boys brushed their
teeth, put on their PJs, then sat in front of the Christmas tree for the reading
of T'was The Night Before Christmas. Jackson is reading so well that we
decided to let him read it this year. He and I secretly practiced on the
nights that Amy worked so that he could surprise her by knowing all the words. He
did a super job and I'm proud to hand that job over to him until Ben is old
enough to take over. That night we slept so hard that Sherri had a
hard time waking us up when she came over from her hotel at 7.
Later in the day we went to my parent's house to exchange gifts and to enjoy even more good food. It's a good thing we have a mini-van or we wouldn't have been able to fit all the presents into it. Jesse went with us and I'm glad he was there to help load all the toys, including an air hockey table, a pirate ship and a giant remote controlled monster truck. Jackson is beside himself with excitement over the air hockey table my sister gave him, although for the life of me I haven't figured out yet where we are going to put it. Another gift from Jackson's Aunt Deana and Uncle Martin that he is excited about is the pair of 6th row center floor seats to High School Musical. He has loved the movie since it came out last summer. He bought the CD with his own money just last week and knows all the words to every song. He loves playing the High School Musical DVD game that our friend Sue gave him for Christmas. We are excited for him because his first real concert/musical will be one that he is crazy about. The show is in Greensboro tomorrow night and Jackson picked his Aunt Deana as the person he wanted to take him.
We enjoyed having Sherri and the boys with us, we loved eating all the great food (thanks Amy and everybody else for cooking so much!), we loved watching the kids open their presents, we enjoyed the presents we got ourselves and I am now ready to collapse and sleep for about two days. Two bad that can't happen. ( More Christmas Photos HERE. )
