Both kids woke up in the morning, not necessarily early, but earlier then either Tami or I wished to get up. Tami and I remained quiet, eyes squeezed tight, understanding each other without words or obvious movement... thinking, if we just fake this sleep a little longer maybe our bodies will make us feel like we really did sleep in. The kids ran off to play and enjoy the morning. At one point they both came back into the room to give us things. I don't remember what my son had but I do remember that my daughter was trying to hand me a package of tofu. This is when I made a vague realization that the tofu yesterday was a) in the fridge, and b) on higher shelf. Before I had to think too much about this, both kids went back out of the room.
Tami says it's better when the kids are quiet because then you know they are not hurt. On this point we disagree. I prefer to regularly hear from both of them to know they are not really hurt or causing too much mischief. At some point in our denial of the morning and our attempt to fool our bodies that we were truly and deeply resting, it occurred to me that the kids had been very quiet for a very long time. Ahh. I had better get up and check on them. Maybe I'll be able to run back to bed after a quick peek and my body won't notice the brief moment of full consciousness and vertical movement.
Quietly I followed the quietness, peeking through the house until.... "Noo...ahh....a..ah.noooo...ah-ohhh, babies!" Two beautiful and innocent faced children paused, turned to me, and just looked with their cherubby gorgeousness, hands paused mid air, and each slightly holding towards me the raw and open eggs that each were opening as I interrupted them.
I managed to take a mental image of how sweet they looked before taking in the situation. I almost believed their innocence when reflecting on that mental picture of the two when I discovered them but then I remembered that they are never that quiet for any where near that long unless they are sleeping. Yeah, they knew what they were doing. Cutie brats! What were they doing? Let me describe the rest of the image. Two kids standing with broken open eggs in their hands. In front of them is the open dozen eggs sitting on a chair pushed up to the open refrigerator. Clearly the chair had been a stool to reach the eggs after the tofu wasn't interesting enough. Then the chair had become a table for the eggs. The open fridge served as additional lighting, inspiration, and a cool breeze, I suppose. The open dozen eggs, by the way, all broken open! Some were expertly opened with the raw eggs redeposited into the the little cups of the egg cartons. Others didn't open so well and that would explain the five or six eggs that were all over the floor and coating my kids' feet and hands. There was also an open milk container on the floor that had already been emptied. I'm not sure if they were making waffles, french toast, or some new creation in their minds. But clearly, they are far more efficient cooks when their Mami is guiding them compared to when they go off on their own.
Clean up was not fun. But that picture in my mind is still pretty cute. While cleaning up Tami asked how long I thought it would be before we would find this funny. I wasn't sure. Turns out the answer is at least 36 hours because it wasn't until Christmas night that we finally even told the story and I think it is a little more that 2 days later as I write this that I find myself really chuckling at the memory. Phyllis added a good point to the story. She said it was a good thing I went out there when I did before the kids brought their creation back to the bedroom to show us. I love those kids.
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Christmas eve dinner:
Presents, and visiting was with Grandma, Grandpa, Tia K, Jonathan, Uncle and Nana at the kids' Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Ana and Nana chatting.
Poor Enzo. The picture above is art, capturing a human emotion.... forced patience unhappily accepted. This is what it feels like when kids think they will open presents, get presents in their hands, start to turn the paper, and are then told to wait until grandma gets in the room to watch and then the kid has to put down the present because it's just too hard to hold the present without opening it. Yep, this is what that feeling looks like.
Luckily talking to Nana is distracting and makes Enzo happy again as he continues to wait for everyone to get back and settled into a seat.
The kids watching Nana open the angel present that they got for her.
Wow, look at that happy face. So many cars.
Ana got new socks. So, naturally she needed to take off the ones that she was wearing and put on her new pink socks. She is pretty impressive. Every day she dresses and undresses herself, multiple times more than one would think is necessary.
Recycling present decorations as doggy decorations.
Christmas morning:
The four of us plus Monte opened presents first thing in the morning. Hamster's are nocturnal so we didn't make Norton get up with us.
Santa brought the kids bicycle helmets.
A while back I wrote about how Enzo broke a mug that was sentimental to Tami. Tom had given Tami that mug way back in high school. Well, with great luck, Enzo found a used mug, exactly as the one Tami was given years ago. Merry Christmas Mami! Tami was very happy with that gift and it was the particular gift I had been most looking forward to see given.
Christmas dinner:
Presents, and visiting was with Tami's side of the family and this year we got together at our house instead of Traci's house. I think there were about 17 or so family and friends who shared the day with us. I really enjoy when the house is full of people. I was the first to fall asleep though, even before the kids, even before bed time. Tami thankfully woke me up after a little bit. I didn't even plan on falling all the way asleep.
Pause for Traci's 10 minutes of birthday celebration!
Yeah! And now back to Christmas...
Ana received a cool A's dress... and so she put it on right then and there.
Merry Christmas!
