Friday, December 28, 2012

Christmas 2012, Part 3

Christmas morning…


For the record, this haul looks pretty big because it contains several presents from Melanie’s parents and three giant bins full of hand-me-down train set pieces that we received from a generous friend.

The traditional table full of candy and other treats. Also, the plate no longer containing the cookies Santa ate and the mug no longer containing the egg nog Santa drank.

(Don’t mind the super cracked footrest. That wasn’t a gift.)




Edison was thrilled to find a plush “Crowny” pig under the tree. He kept Crowny close at hand for the rest of the day and told me that it was his favorite Christmas present of all. He renamed him “Oinky,” thereby abandoning the name he and Peter had chosen for the Angry Birds character many months ago. I’m not sure why.






Eddie, Peter, and Creegan each received a Hexbug Nano in their stockings. These electronic critters scurry around on the ground exactly as a bug would. They move quickly and make me a bit squeamish due to their realism. Peter has been especially fond of his bug.



Creegan was a latecomer to Christmas morning. Or, at least, he was a few minutes behind. We figured Eddie and Peter would soon enough wake their little brother as they started unwrapping things. We were correct.



Creegan tried out all of the vehicles Santa left us. Technically, Creegan’s gift was the blue scooter and Peter’s was the blue PlasmaCar pictured here. However, despite already owning a nearly identical scooter, Peter was super excited about the blue scooter and promptly adopted it for himself. That suited Creegan just fine, as he took ownership of the PlasmaCar. Go figure.



Eddie opens the homemade present he received from Peter.


It was a coloring book, with coloring pages selected by Peter.

Peter opens the homemade present he received from Eddie.


It was a coloring book, with coloring pages selected by Eddie.

Creegan opens the homemade present he received from Eddie and Peter.


It was a coloring book, with coloring pages selected by Eddie and Peter. The boys were very sweet in making these gifts for each other, and they were even sweeter in showing their appreciation to each other. They each treated the gift like it was neat and special. What great boys!

To be continued!

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas 2012, Part 2

More pictures from the 2012 Christmas season…

Creegan in his reindeer pajamas




Dorothy B. Oven Park offers the premier Christmas light display in Tallahassee. It is a much greater and grander attraction than these photos can convey. I have included some photos here that did not utilize the flash on our camera. As such, they are a bit blurry, and yet they better capture the feeling of being at Dorothy B. Oven Park in the dark.










We continued our Christmas Eve dinner tradition of eating homemade soup in bread bowls. Melanie even made the bread bowls herself. This year, we prepared two kinds of soup. Melanie made an Italian sausage and potato soup that was loaded with spinach. I made a tomato basil soup. Both were quite yummy.




 



We also continued our Christmas Eve tradition of letting the kids open up one gift from Mom and Dad. Creegan got some Cars pajamas. Eddie and Peter got Angry Birds pajama bottoms.







To be continued!