Happy Birthday, Big Baby Jesus

Merry Christmas, Internet!!!

Wanna see what our Christmas was like?  'Course you do.

Enjoy.

The one thing Abby wanted for Christmas more than anything this year was the Lego Rapunzel's Creativity Tower.  She saw it in the Lego Store a few months back and has remained unwavering in proclaiming her desire for Santa to bring it for her Christmas morning.  To say this kid was happy opening this particular gift from 'Santa' is a definite understatement.

Alayna didn't fare as well with her list from Santa.  She asked him for a drum set, a Penny Ling (from Littlest Pet Shop) stuffed animal, her own cell phone, and a 'real bow-and-arrow' (that she could 'shoot bad guys in the face with,' no less.)  Our parenting is often questionable, but we're not that bad. . . so Santa brought her the stuffed animal and some other crap.  Fortunately, she was cool with this.

Santa also brought them the gigantor doll house (at left) and some new 'grown up' umbrellas, to replace the old battered ones they've nearly ground into ribbons.

What little girl doesn't want an ole timey pocket watch in their stocking. . . right?

It's the stocking stuffer that keeps on giving.

Watson enjoyed Christmas immensely.

Of course this happened.

Carnage.

Some of my stocking stuffers.  Kris Santa knows me well.

Also off Abby's list to Santa - a Zarina doll from Disney's The Pirate Fairy.

This is completely impractical, but damn it. . . she wanted it.  She saw it at a local Halloween City back in October, and really wanted it, so the next day I swung by and picked it up.  It's too big for her, and way too hot for down here in Swampville, but I guess she'll grow into it. . .?

The Cannonball's becoming a fan of bad guys, monsters, girls with 'edgier' looks, and also Barbies.  We picked her up two of the Twilight series dolls - because you'd think that'd satisfy all of the above requirements, wouldn't you? - and she loved the first one.  This one?  Hell nope.

I bought the wrong kind of bacon this year.  As you can imagine, it nearly ruined Christmas.

Opening some of my gifts from the girls. . .

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but every Christmas we give each of the girls $5 and let them pick out a gift for Kris and I.  The results can be hilarious, but this year wasn't too bad.  Abby got me a keychain version of Anakin's lightsaber that lights up, and Alayna selected this keychain light-thing that projects the Imperial insignia on a surface.  It was a Star Wars kinda Christmas.

Abby bought Kris a green earring/necklace set.  She had that picked out before we even set foot in a store, so when we found it at Target that was it.  Now all Kris has to do in order to be a good mom is wear the shit out in public.

Once we had opened up all of Santa's gifts, tackled stockings, drank a pot of coffee, and eaten a fatty breakfast, we poured some mamosas and turned on Skype to share Christmas with the Hough side of the family.  Skype now allow you to group chat with multiple users simultaneously, so we were able to have the girls open their gifts from Uncle Bryan and Aunt Lyssa, who live out in Vegas (as you'll recall, we already had our Christmas with Dad and Cindy.)

Bryan and Lyssa hit two homeruns this year with the girls - a make-up kit for Alayna and a princess doll set for Abby.

The girls also spent $5 on each other this year, something we haven't done in the past.  Abby bought Alayna the exact same stuffed rabbit that Watson shredded last year, and in return Alayna got her yet another miniature puppy stuffed in a purse. . . 'cause that's what sells around these parts.

Yes, Kris loves Dunkin Donuts.

. . . AND cheap, gaudy jewelry (the bracelet's from Alayna.)

The gift-opening and Skyping raged on into the afternoon - here the girls open some more plunder from Grandma Jordan.

I spent the majority of the day putting Lego sets together.  I can think of many worse ways to spend a day.

Breaking in the new digs.

Not a white Christmas this year in Florida.

The girls enjoy making up their own games.  Pictured here we have some kind of soccer-esque game that requires the player to run with the ball in their hands around 'cones' (we forgot to buy them, so the girls improvised.)  Clearly they inherited their athleticism from their old man.

To be fair, though, Abby's really taken a liking to soccer lately, playing it regularly at school.  Alayna... enjoys playing with sticks.

More Christmas Skyping.  This time, Mom's side of the family.

Photo courtesy of the Cannonball.  Mom and John bought the whole family Nerf guns this year.  I can't imagine these things being misused AT ALL.

Abby 'helping' me with building another one of her Lego sets. . .

Watsan, as usual, spent most of the day sleeping.

Later on into the evening, as the gift-opening wound down and we had filled our Skype quota for the day, we ate some more leftovers and kicked off a marathon session of Christmas movies we hadn't yet watched.  Who knows how we let A Charlie Brown Christmas slip by us. . .

Another version of A Christmas Carol, courtesy of the Muppets (I was hoping for this one last night, but was out-voted.)

One of the stocking stuffer-ish gifts I picked up for Kris this year was some Pumpkin Spice Kahlua.  She's not a big drinker, but enjoys the occasional White Russian. . . and she loves Pumpkin Spice.  A no-brainer, right?  Well, she also loves peppermint mocha, and the bottle you see to the right there was a stocking stuffer-ish gift from last Christmas she's still working on.  I'm sure we'll be seeing that Pumpkin Spice a year from now. . .

Aaaand that's it.  Time for bed.

364 days and counting, everybody.

- Brian