We were so thankful that Garin woke up without a fever this morning! He had the biggest stack of goodies by far. He didn't quite understand the whole unwrapping thing. I guess it is a little strange, when you think about it. His first gift scared him when he pressed on it, and it started singing; then he cried when Daddy took it to cut it free from the box. By the time we were done, though, he had it figured out enough to watch me unwrap each gift before he took it to examine and play with. Below is a photo of him surrounded by his loot (and his brother); some of it still didn't make it into the frame! Matt was quite happy with his gifts and can hardly wait to spend the money and gift cards he received. Karl and I had fun, too, not only watching our boys, but also surprising each other. This is the first year in a very long time when I had no clue what was under the tree!
We had the big Christmas dinner about 4:00 and then went to the Weigners' house at 6:00 for pie a la mode and egg nog. Melody made blueberry and pumpkin, Danielle made apple, and Kim made cherry. I took Pat Breville's now-famous egg nog, which has become a Christmas staple in our family. Mom makes several batches every year when the family gathers in Longview. I never make it (or drink it) that I don't think of Pat dragging huge jugs of it, well spiked, to work on the day before our Christmas holiday began and storing it in the huge "dairy" refrigerator. (Our company was owned by a wonderful Orthodox Jewish family. They required separate storage for meat and dairy.) We all snuck to the break room several times on that day each year! Those folks were such fun. We were always planning parties or bringing food for any occasion we could dream up, and everyone looked out for each other. I sure miss those guys!
But back to the subject.....Tonight, the teens and adults played Pop 5 by Cranium and had a blast! We were on teams of six, so it was loud and a bit chaotic, but very much fun. Garin got tired, and we finally had to say goodnight around 9:00. We came home and put Garin to bed; then we got out the dominoes for another exciting family Christmas tradition: chickenfoot!
It's been a great day! The only thing that would have made it better is having our families there with us. We miss you all and have been thinking of you throughout the day. We hope that you have had lots of delicious food, lots of exciting presents, lots of hearty laughter, and - most importantly - lots of joy and time for reflection on what this day is really all about.
Blessings,
The Heinrichs
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