Christmas started a 6:30 AM for Carrie and me. I'd thought, "Christmas morning doesn't feel the same without some sort of hustle and bustle to get ready..." The next thing I knew, I got what I wished for. I was assembling drawers on the bedroom floor while Carrie wrapped gifts!
Shane woke up to unexpected presents. We'd told him we were doing all the presents at Grandma and Grandpa's!
Everything's more exciting when it's a surprise!
Shane got a bunch of needed underwear, shoes, and socks that fit, but there were fun things like a How to Draw Pokemon book...
...and a Pichu!
Loki loved all the cardboard (until I took it away).
We didn't get on the road until later than expected. Carrie and I hoisted the keyboard onto the truck as a gift for Chris and Rachel.
Loki came with us.
We were going to be gone most of the day and Carrie wanted to introduce him to all of the cousins.
There was only a month's notice from the military, but Chris and his family are going to be moving back to Northern Virginia. They've spent the past years in Singapore and Italy (Chris spent time in Kuwait and other areas, as well).
They're staying at Grandpa and Grandma's until their house is ready which made for our first Christmas together in six years!
I thought we were going to get a great reaction from Grandma, but the initial thunder was stolen. Grandma gave all of us house shoes and said, "Put them on!"
Loki was already in his shoes!
I introduced the cousins to fetch.
Dogs were new to them!
Loki was a huge hit. The poor guy was poked, prodded, chased, and played with non-stop. I had to stand in his pen at one point to keep it from turning into a dog compactor!
Then the kids got in the pen while Loki ran around the outside!
Chris seemed a little concerned and told his kids not to get in the pen at one point, but I said it was safe like a shark cage!
Loki wasn't dumb enough to hop back in when the kids hopped out.
The chase was on again!
The kids all ran wild while the food was being prepped. The last time we saw Sophia was over five years ago. Nate was a still a baby when we saw him at Christmas SIX years ago!
I firmly believe kids need to run out some energy. Loki helped with that.
Sophia showed she had the mind of a trickster hiding on the inside. She asked Shane for his Pichu and dropped it in the dog cage! Then it started with her trying to feed Loki water with a spoon, but transformed into her and Nate giving Loki a shower by the spoonful!
Dinner was served early. The kids had put placemarkers with names on them, so we'd know where to sit.
The kids had originally been in the dining room, but Carrie and Chris both said, "Kid's table!" I wholeheartedly agreed!
The kids needed time to be kids and the adults needed time to be adults! I couldn't hear any notable squabbling and got to hear about how the mafia trash burning services in Naples.
Carrie helped encourage Noah to finish his food while Chris and Rachel helped clean up (I took pictures and played with kids.....so that sort of helps!).
After dinner, it was time for presents!
Sophia said, "This is the best present ever!" at least three times.
Which immediately drew Shane's attention. That's normally the type of thing he would shout!
Of course, I took lots of fun pictures. Nate loved getting some cars and Noah pointed out he already had the board game we'd got for him (oops).
I love catching a non-blurry smile. The kids were hopping all over!
The adults stayed on the fringe of the wrapping shredding frenzy.
Loki would have loved to have been even on the fringe!
I took a few aerial shots of the carnage.
No, there was no drone. I was upstairs.
I got a great photo of Nate when I hopped back downstairs.
And here's Noah hugging his mom!
Everyone started to compare their hauls while I snuck and got a brownie.
Shane was excited to get a bunch of pokeballs to catch his Pichu with. I told him not to throw them in the kitchen and (of course) one went into the dirty dish washing station a moment or two later.
I don't know if Shane tried to catch any of Nate's cars with his pokeballs.
Sophia got a watch with a camera on it. She loved running around and videotaping the dog.
Shane was happy to hop into shots and dance around like a crazy man!
We left around 6 PM. That gave us time to get home for horse chores and the cousins are still adjusting from European time. Grandpa said they'd gone to bed around 7 PM the previous night and were up around 5 AM!
Shane loved seeing his cousins. We made plans for them to visit our farm Friday. Shane was all a-jabber about it on the ride home!
Loki looked adorable with his shoes and bow tie!! What a great idea to take him with you. I so enjoyed this post. It looks like a super wonderful Christmas. I'm so glad that Shane could have special time with his cousins. Nancy and Tony must be so happy having Chris and Rachel and their kids moving back to Virginia.
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