This year was a slower Christmas. Without everyone else living at my Dad's house, we didn't have the big Christmas there that we usually have. Instead, we stayed home for the day, planning to go up and see my Dad this week when my sister and her family were in town. (We were supposed to go today, but that's been shunted to tomorrow because Pete's sick.) So it was a far more laid back Christmas than we've had since Teddy was really little.
The boys were told that they weren't allowed to wake us up before 7 and they weren't allowed to go downstairs without us. And they were pretty good about it. At 6:45, they came in because Pete had a nightmare and rather than make them go back to bed, we got up and were ready to head downstairs and see what Santa had left us.
The kids were excited about what they got me and wanted me to open my gifts first, but I convinced them to take turns between themselves and after that, Mommy and Daddy would take turns. There were gifts from us, gifts from Grandma and Grandpa, gifts from Nonni and Pop, gifts from Great Aunt Rosemary and Great Uncle George and gifts from Pete's godfather (and Rich's cousin), Will. They were rolling in gifts.
While all of them were well loved, there were a few obvious favorites.
For Teddy:
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| Nonni and Pop got Teddy the Pokemon Unova set.
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| Teddy kept using our Pokemon Pearl and Platinum games, so we got him Pearl for himself. |
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| We also picked up Platinum for him as well. He doesn't have a DS of his own yet, but I think that will be a birthday gift in February. |
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| I hadn't expected him to be quite so excited about the Bakugan we got him. But he didn't want to let them go. |
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| In an attempt to get a bit more exercise for the boys, I got Teddy a pair of Grow with Me Inline skates. |
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| Santa brought Teddy Scrabble Jr... something he'd been begging for! |
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| Grandma and Grandpa won big with Pokemon shiny cards and a folio to keep them in. And this from grandparents who know nothing about Pokemon. |
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And finally, the Pokemon Black and White manga, volume 1.
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As you can tell, it's been a pretty Pokemon Christmas.
For Pete, here are some of his highlights:
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| New Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Sheets from Nonni & Pop. |
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| Alphie from Nonni & Pop... and he's been playing with him for days. |
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| Santa brought a Dinosaur Train motorized set. It hasn't been set up yet (no room until we do some cleaning) but he wants it to be! |
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| In trying to help him work on his numbers, Pete got a Chat & Count phone. |
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| Some Dinosaur Train figures to go with his playset. |
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| A book about Dinosaurs from Grandma and Grandpa |
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| Grandma and Grandpa also picked up dinosaur figures for Mommy & Daddy to step on. |
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| While Teddy got the inline skates, Pete got Grow with Me Roller Skates |
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| Thanks to Aunt Rosemary and Uncle George, he has a new bedtime friend in Roaring Rex. |
There was one big win for the whole family:
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| Season 1 of Pokemon, Indigo League |
For Rich, the big winner was, I believe, a bunch of comics and graphic novels from his loving wife:
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| Beanworld, Vol 1 & 2 |
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| Eternals, Vol 1 & 2, and PVP, Vol 5 |
As for me? Well, along with the various DS games that I got from Rich, the boys got me my favorite:
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| My Zebra pillow pet. |
And finally, I pooled together the various bits of Christmas money that I received and bought myself a Kindle Fire. I've been wanting an eReader for awhile, as well as an android/iPad/tablet/something that runs apps. This melds the two of them nicely. It's the most I've ever spent on a Christmas gift for myself and I'm really looking forward to it's arrival on Friday.
I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas (for those who celebrate such things) and are enjoying the end of 2011. May 2012 be even better for you.
