Papa and Nana's Pre-Christmas Extravaganza, Pt. III

So today was the last day we'd be seeing Dad and Cindy on their pre-Christmas, extended weekend visit.  As I mentioned before, they were good enough to take the girls overnight for one last sleepover at their resort, so Kris and I got to sleep in past 6:30am (which, as you can imagine, rarely happens.)

It had been agreed upon earlier that today would be the day that we would celebrate our Christmas with Dad and Cindy, since they'd be in town and everything, so when they brought the girls back by the house later this morning, we broke out the mamosas and exchanged some presents.

Check it out. . .

The 2014 Hough Family Christmas Tree

. . . aaaand the miniature one the girls keep in their playroom with all the Second-Tier ornaments.

'Tis the season.

Some new personalized water bottles for the girls, courtesy of one of Nana's coworkers (who's also done purses and more for the girls in the past.)

Christmas-y photo-op in front of the tree (as you can tell from the headlock, Watson wasn't cool with this.)

Sans dog.

Watson has a bizarre fascination with my dad.  This dog doesn't know the meaning of personal space.

More of the same from the Hough girls. . .

Freeing toys from their packaging these days is like trying to break a prisoner out of a high-security penitentiary. . .

The Cannonball tries out her new Goldiblox (engineering alternative to Barbie) figure.  Took her a bit to warm up to it, but she likes it now.

Pink, sparkly, princess unicorns?  Yeah, that's a no-brainer.

Kicking off another holiday mamosa morning.

Abby smelling one of Watson's new Nyla-bones ('cause everyone loves bacon.)

Dad and I ended up getting each other the exact, same record brush this year.

See the tiger in the background?  Remember Jim Henson's '80's made-for-TV movie, A Christmas Toy?  Damn straight, you do.

The only people in the house that appreciate a mamosa Christmas.

Tug of war with Watson

Trying out some of her new toys from Papa and Nana

(Truth be told, I don't think anyone was actually watching this.)

The main gift from Dad and Cindy this year was a karaoke machine for the girls.  Seeing how much these kids love performing and playing with microphones, it was an obvious homerun.

The CD-Gs that Dad and Cindy bought along with the machine (and an extra microphone) are displayed via the TV, and I ran the audio-out into our living room sound system. . . so that when the girls butcher their favorite Disney songs, we'll be able to listen to their warbling in surround sound.

Time for a Frozen duet. . .

Something tells me I'm never playing video games in the living room again. . .

Happy Pre-Christmas, Cyberspace.

- Brian