Christmas 2013 was amazing, perfect and wonderful ... thanks to family. Though we weren't able to spend this Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Renoud (those happy snowbirds were enjoying the warmth of Arizona), a few days before Christmas, Grandpa Winston stopped by with homemade peanut brittle (Jamisen has not quit asking for it for breakfast every morning). He also brought wonderful outfits for the kiddos.
For the actual Christmas Day, we were happy to have Grandma and Grandpa Faiola and Auntie Sharon. Uncle Erik and Auntie Cheriss came over for dinner a couple nights before but spent the actual day in California with Cheriss's family. We are so blessed to have a loving, and close family.
Jamisen had never experienced the magic of a Christmas stocking before. His excitement was literally over the top crazy happy. His happy energy could have powered a spaceship. His stocking was full of juice (yeah, the kid never gets juice so therefore, juice is considered stocking-worthy material), tangerine oranges, a Pez dispenser + candy and Smarties candies). He was so so so excited. We could have stopped the presents there and he would have been thrilled.
But, of course we didn't stop there. Jamisen asked Santa for very specific things (a loader, a fire truck, and a puzzle). Santa was a good listener and delivered. It was quite a packaging debacle for a happy set of children.
Lily loves paper - any paper - and enjoys that almost as much as the gifts though her Auntie Sharon got her several soft crinkly things to play with. The soft book and the crinkly noisy toy have a place of honor in her crib. I'm sure the "noisy crinkly toys in the crib thing" may turn out to be a mistake at some 2 a.m. point in the future but she loves them.
Jamisen loves his fire house and fire truck. He does have firemen waiting for him ... but he has to sit on the toilet without his diaper in order to get his merry band of firefighters and so far, he's been proclaiming "NO!" at the top of his lungs.
Baby Lily didn't get so much in the way of big gifts - primarily because her main needs are baby food purees, formula and a bigger clothing budget than I (diapers cost a lot of money). She laughs easily and everywhere we go, people stop us to tell us how cute she is. They did that for Jamisen too (don't feel left out Little Buddy).
Auntie Sharon got Jamisen a wonderful apron for his Chef aspirations. He hasn't taken it off for four days yet. He wears it proudly everywhere and loves to cook with it on. His favorite creation is Cheese Ice Cream. He might be onto something there. Take note, Wolfgang Puck.
The biggest gift of all was from Santa with a little help from Grandpa Faiola. The rideable digger was a highlight and I know when the weather clears up that we won't be able to keep him off of it. We'll have to get Lily a helmet so her brother can drag her around in the back. We have already confirmed that the front loader won't hold her weight. But, the back trailer could easily hold her ... with a helmet on only.
Chris deserves a Husband of the Year medal for trying to help me with a work project - making lye from wood ash. It turns out that there is absolutely no way to make enough ash in one fireplace to actually make lye. We've taken to asking places around town that have fireplaces to donate their ashes to the project. After multiple weeks of collecting, we may have enough ashes to make enough lye for one bar of soap. Phew... so much work!
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