Christmas, Coming At You

The tree: before.

I managed to stave off the excited hordes until 6 a.m., at which point they rushed upstairs to look in their stockings.

And then there was a candy break.

This year there were Nerds Ropes in their stockings. Do you know about these? I didn't, until A. bought one once at a gas station like two years ago and the kids have been talking about it ever since. They're these chewy candy ropes--kind of like a Twizzler--that's covered in Nerds.

They're absolutely revolting. In my opinion.

But Christmas is all about making dreams come true, so Nerds Ropes in the stockings it is. And then they all ate them. At 6 a.m.

Even A. got one and ate it right away. The perfect accompaniment to coffee, apparently.

Poppy didn't get one. She got a couple of diapers in her stocking, and doesn't look pleased about it. But at least she was crying in a festive outfit!

After they started their Christmas sugar consumption, the present opening began. The first gifts to be opened were Lego sets from my parents. Cubby opened his and shouted, "HOORAY! This is EXACTLY what I wanted!"

High five to SuperNana.

They went downstairs immediately to start dumping out tiny pieces and building ninja bases. Or whatever they are.

When I sent my dad this picture with a thank you e-mail, he wrote back, "I thought your life needed more tiny pieces on the floor." Yeah, me too.

They got lots of other things from relatives, and played with all of it. At 10 a.m., when they were all still in their pajamas and had consumed almost all of the candy from their stockings--along with one of A.'s famous gigantic omelets--I announced that there was one more present, but it was outside and they had to get dressed to play with it.

My brother sent the sled. Good call, Arizona Uncle.

Shortly after this, the snow started falling more heavily and the wind picked up. So now we're having an arctic Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all of you from all of us.