Christmas 2009

December 24-25 2009: Ahhhh, Christmas finally arrived. I say this as I was getting tired of "just 3 more days Mom" "just 2 more days Mom" "Mom? Can you believe it.....IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!!!" Good heavens! I know I was never like that....no, never (really, you can't see the sarcasm dripping from the words?)
Ok, so we opted to do more of a Scandinavian Christmas this year. That is staying up late to eat and open stockings and gifts at midnight. Let's just say that the late eating....made it all the way to 6 pm, by then we were really hungry, so ate dinner. Andi went to bed around 8, fell asleep around 9. Santa came, then had to take a nap before midnight.

So, we were up at midnight opening gifts. We were doing it this way impart because Shane had to go to work Friday night, late...so the theory was open gifts Christmas eve play all night, sleep all day.....note, it was a theory.

Opening commenced, once we we got a rather large snack unwrapped from the tree (thank goodness he's fake....but who's ever heard of a Christmas Snake..)

Below: Andi starts in on the goodies....no she's not giddy with excitement (yes she is)

Above: having opened my new camera....I had to start testing out the zoom lens. It's got a pretty good zoom, I refrained from putting up the picture of nostril hairs...

The aftermath...Lots of great gifts this year. All of them deeply appreciated. It made being so far from home a little easier.

ok, so before you peek down at the next picture (but perhaps you already have) lets return to that "theory" of Shane's. You know, open at midnight, stay up all night playing. Sleep all day and he'll be ready for work. By 1am presents were done...."well, I'm off to get some sleep"....what? who uttered those words? ahhh, that would be Shane. So off he went. Admittedly he hasn't been feeling to well (he was hit with whatever Andi and I had sans the fever, so his has been hanging around a bit longer....I feel fine, therefore the rest of the house must be in good shape as well) I asked Andi if there was ANY chance of her wanting to sleep right then....of course not! She and I stayed up. Well, she stayed up. I sat in the lazyboy and put things together....and convinced her to watch videos. Now that would work on an average kid. But she doesn't sit still to watch movies. There is constant motion. So, as a result she would poke me awake to announce she needed a new video. We'd get it going...I'd try to look like I was paying attention while she created chaos. Around 4 Shane came out to watch the end of the "wizard of oz", and of course fell back to sleep, Andi did as well by that time.

Andi, finally down and out...

Santa couldn't find any Tinker Toys in Japan...and didn't have time for American elves to go on a search...so instead found K'nex at a Toy R Us in Hachinohe. Let me just say, these are much more confusing then Mrs Claus that they would be. It took Shane and I the better part of an hour, and only one argument to complete the Ferris wheel. It took Andi just 3 hours to ask if she could take it down. We made her keep it up for one day. She wants more....I'm hoping she'll figure out how to put it together herself.

So, there ends our Christmas festivities. Vacation continues until the 4th. My countdown is underway.

Hopefully tonight we can get out to American park and the Clan house to get some pictures of the Christmas lights. New Year's is the next big holiday....Perhaps I celebrate New York time, which would make it around 2 pm the next day....sounds good to me.