Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

Now on to the important stuff - let me assault you with pictures of the recent Wallace Christmas celebrations. We stayed in Charlottesville this year and had a nice Christmas just the four of us. Our tree looked like it had enough presents under it to last for several Christmases yet to come, and of course, Erin's pile was the largest.

Let me begin with Christmas Eve, which was spent largely with our friends John and Margaret several football games and their new HDTV. Not exactly your traditional Christmas Eve but being with special friends was nice. We did get out to the Christmas Eve service where Erin donned a halo and took part in the children's pageant as an angel. Unfortunately they didn't have any wings small enough for her.

Once we got home and tucked the kids into bed we began the assembly of the tree area (all the presents had been hidden in the basement) and Erin's present from her Nonni and Grandad. She was to be wake up the proud owner of a play kitchen complete with microwave, refrigerator, oven, sink and telephone. While Tom assembled the kitchen Meghan finished wrapping gifts and stocking stuffers. Amazingly the kids slept through it all and we were in bed by 1:30 AM.

Jeffrey woke us up around 8:30 - late for him and Erin was still asleep. So Meghan got Jeff up and ready and then gently woke Erin up. I asked her if she wanted to see if Santa had arrived and she woke right up. We headed down the stairs and Erin looked at the tree stating again, "so pretty." Then she noticed the kitchen. It took her a few seconds to soak it all in but before long she was cooking up a storm. It was nearly impossible to get her to open her stocking because all she wanted to do was cook in the kitchen. Once we were able to get her to focus on the ctocking she got really excited about it. Santa brought her Tinkerbell panties, a Dora coloring book, candy and even a toothbrush which she immediately brought up to her bathroom. It's amazing how thrilling little things can be.

Jeffrey was much more interested in things than I remember Erin being her first Christmas. He wanted to get right into the middle of everything. He helped open the gifts from Santa and even gave one the "chew" test before it even got out of the wrapping paper. Santa brought our little man his first sippy cup and several pair of socks to chew on.

After the long process of opening stockings, Tom began preparing breakfast. Erin cooked in her kitchen whipping up strawberries, corn and my favorite - coffee. We got her to eat a few bites of eggs inbetween cooking her own courses.

Once we started with the presents under the tree Erin showed a little more interest but was still obsessed with the kitchen. She slowly began to realize that more and more fun things were appearing. Jeffrey stood at the activity table near the tree and helped to open some of the gifts but mainly just watched. He continued to show interest in most things though. He did get really excited when he got to open his gift from Uncle Jeff and Aunt Robyn because it made lots of fun noises and had lots of lights. It also contained a hammer which was just as good for chewing on as it was for hitting his sister when she got in his way.

Tom loved his special calendar with pictures of both the kids. He also got a pod coffeemaker so he could bring hot coffee to work in the mornings. I got lots of yummy things to consume including coffee and coffee liquor, as well as a new DVD burner for my computer. I also got a book on how to work in Photoshop so you will all have to put up with more of my experiments.

Tom and I got Erin a working camera for Christmas. She has always shown an interst in our camera so we thought this would be a good idea. She knew almost immediately what to do with it and quickly asked to start taking pictures or in Erin-ese to "take a camera." We were both very glad that she was excited with it and I am looking forward to seeing what things look like from the point of view of a pre-schooler.

After an hour or so of wrapping paper and boxes flying around and each toy being played with for approximately 3.5 seconds no presents remained under the tree. I laid Jeffrey down for a nap and Tom proceeded to clean up breakfast. Then Erin and I put together Jeffrey's activity wall toy - which appears to be as much for Erin as it is for Jeffrey. The nap, which lasted a whopping 30 minutes, ended and Jeffrey was introduced to his new toy. He took a few seconds to look at it and found it somewhat interesting and daunting at the same time.

The rest of the afternoon was quiet and full of experimenting with new toys etc. I fixed a ham for dinner and John and Margaret joined us for the evening. We closed the weekend much as we began it - watching football with some special friends and sitting back as the kids settled into their new toys.

Several days later we've returned from a brief Christmas visit to Silver Spring, Erin continues to cook and serve coffee in her kitchen and Jeffrey has figured out how to stand at his playing wall. Requests to "take a camera" continue off and on. New sheets adorn Erin's bed and Jeffrey now has a toybox in his room. But other than that, things are beginning to return to normal after a wonderful and magical Christmas together.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night....