Side note: I am writing this post on my new MacBook. I LOVE it, and it's been fun this weekend discovering all of its Hidden Powers. The hidden powers, they are positively yummy.
OK, I'm diving in.
You know, The Big Deal on Christmas morning was the announcement of our upcoming Disney vacation with my parents and sister. I wanted to capture the "reveal" on video ...
The boys are really excited about it! They've been talking about it almost non-stop, and yesterday we watched the DVD Disney sent that gives you an overview of the parks. The boys got more and more excited every time they saw a neat roller coaster or exhibit. The countdown has begun ... they keep asking if we can go "tomorrow" or "next week" ... they don't want to have to wait a month to go. It really IS going to be so much fun!
After the Disney reveal, we moved on to stockings and opening gifts. The big boys were really taken with their new sleeping bags, which will be wonderfully warm when they go on their next Cub Scout overnight camping trip. They immediately wrapped themselves up in them to test them out:
Nick also got a build-your-own light saber kit that has interchangeable glowy thingies in it so it can glow red, green or blue. They played with it so much in the first 24 hours that the batteries died.
Scout was with us the entire morning, watching us from the comfort of his perch on the couch.
He was interested in the wrapping and tissue paper, but mostly he just likes to be in the room with us now. (He used to be much more independent, when Ellie was alive, but now he's more needy -- which is fine with me.)
Jake loved the Little Einsteins Rocket that we gave him, as well as his Little Einsteins laptop from G-daddy and his Aunt Debbie and Uncle Gerry. He and Mop played with it for a while as the rest of us continued opening our gifts.
Here's my dad ("Pop" to the boys) holding up his iTunes gift cards and snack-size Almond Joys.
Pop gave Mop a beautiful rustic clock, perfect for their mountain house in North Carolina.
After all of the gifts were finally unwrapped (we had an abundance ... way too many considering that Disney was supposed to be our gift!), the boys settled in to play their new soccer game on their PSPs. And I'm glad I took pictures of them on Christmas Eve in their PJs, because they were only in them for about 10 minutes on Christmas morning before they put on their new Bakugan T-shirts (from their stockings) and then transitioned to Obi-Wan and Anakin costumes (from Halloween).
Dad didn't have his laptop with him and I was taking the picture, so we're short two laptops in this picture. I should have propped Jakey up there with his Einsteins laptop to bump up our people-to-laptop ratio!
But we are loving having the new sectional sofa, which gave us lots more room for people to crowd around and watch TV and chat. It's nice to have a seat for everyone in the den!
On Saturday I tried to get some pictures of the boys with my sister ... Jake wasn't really in a photogenic sort of mood. He was on the move constantly!
I ultimately gave up on trying to get a good picture on the front porch, and we moved to the backyard. The big boys got right to work getting sweaty, running around and treating the slide as though it was a mountain to climb.
I adore their new shirts, which I got from 3Ts and me, an etsy shop I love. (She also did their pumpkin shirts around Thanksgiving.)
We snapped a few shots of me and my sister, Sarah Ellen ...
And I finally got one of most of our crew out on the swings, where Jake was moderately happy. (Note to self: Have swingset pressure-washed.)
It was a big, exciting weekend with more material rewards than we could possibly deserve, and more relational blessings than I can count. The saving grace when we said our goodbyes is that we know we're only a month away from seeing everyone again ... next time in Orlando!
ORLANDO HAS NO IDEA WHAT'S COMING.
1 comment:
That's a great post. Loved seeing the "mystery" being solved!
Beckie in Brentwood, TN
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