December 25 Christmas Day

Thursday:  Here are photos of the kids opening the gifts I bought for them. I didn't arrive until noon today, which gave Dylan's family time to celebrate the opening of their gifts to each other as leisurely as they liked. They were all actively playing with their stuff when I arrived, and no one hurried to open their packages from me--which was surprising, but to me it meant that Dylan and Kelly did a very nice job with their gift selections!

LOOK! Cal got his very own Jurassic Park Chess board! Oh my! He is thrilled with it! I sat and tried to play a game with him--but the pieces are difficult for me to identify, so I struggled. I'll have to get used to it somehow.

Here is Cal examining his wrapped presents.

This is the Dino launcher (Hot Wheels) that he opened first--except we couldn't quite figure out the launching part, so I was disappointed!

Here is Cal opening up the air craft carrier, which took us a little while to figure out; but there is a picture of it assembled later on in this post. I also got him some dinosaur truck transformers, also a little bit difficult to figure out. Aidan was trying to help, but Cal would not allow any assistance!

This is Erin opening up her "Owly" books--she was super excited to get these.

I also got her some "Paint your own Magnet Tiles", which she wanted to do immediately--but I put her off until a more reasonable time.

Here is the little baby doll with accessories that she wanted too. It took us a while to assemble the bed (it helps to read the instructions), but it finally all came together very nicely. Erin was very pleased.

Aidan wanted a mini retro game system--and this is what he opened first. He was really excited to get this.

"Snoopy Beagle Scout" was also a hit. 

This blank Comic Book looks fun. Aidan is quite an author!

Brendan opening up a nice sketch book ...

I also got him a colored pencil set with a nice case ...

AND a nice art supply kit--mostly charcoal pencils and shaders ...

But I think Brendan's favorite was this Pokemon glow-in-the-dark Labyrinth game.

I got Kelly a nice book from my friend, Jen's floral gift shop (Ball Park Floral)--but I had a nagging suspicion that I had already given her this book in prior years!! Kelly assured me that this was a different one. I told her I could always take it back and exchange it for one she doesn't have if she finds that this is a duplicate. It's one of those DIY books with cool ideas--just up Kelly's alley.

Dylan didn't give me a list, so I gave him cash instead.

We finally got the air craft carrier figured out, and even managed to get the bombs to launch--finally! It came with 10 airplanes and a gas truck--all of the aircraft fit inside the carrier.

Erin and I and Brendan played a game of Labyrinth--Brendan won! I wasn't sure I was going to be able to figure out how to play this--but Brendan was patient, so I finally caught on.

See the watch Erin is wearing? It has a lot of very cool features--Erin loves it! Her Uncle Shane got it for her--he always buys the kids nice presents for Christmas and their birthdays. It sure was nice to see him today.

The Lions Christmas game was scheduled today at 4:25 on Netflix. Dylan and Kelly don't have Netflix, so one of their good friends invited them over to watch it at their house. Jesse and I agreed that I would drive over to his place to visit him for Christmas and watch the game over there. 

It was kind of a pathetic game and was a MUST WIN for Detroit. But they lost 10 to 23 ... so no playoffs this year for us. Jesse had said from the outset that it probably would be best if we lost today, because the chances for a playoff berth was SO slim, that we might as well get it over with today instead of holding out on not much hope. Sigh. We really didn't play very well today at all. But I am a Lions fan no matter what (almost), and I really like their coach and their team approach to the game. 

Two days from now, Jesse and his kids will be here for Christmas. I am looking forward to it very much.