Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve

Sooooo, a whole lot has transpired since my last post, including an attempted visit to the emergency room and a near-nervous breakdown. And while that might sound exciting to all of you, I am going to start with our Pre-Christmas celebration with the Evanses last weekend and get to the rest later, when I have mustered the strength to write about it.

Bill and Vicki got here Friday evening. We spent Saturday morning at the mall, where we shopped, listened to children's choirs sing carols, listened to school girls play instruments, ate at the food court, watched toy trains run tracks, and decided against waiting in line for four hours to see the world famous Northpark Center Santa Claus. Maybe next year. By Saturday afternoon, Chris and Leah had also joined the party. Of course, they quickly pooped our party and left to have dinner with Chris's family and missed out on a delicious, home-cooked meal created by yours truly. The menu included sweet potato casserole, seven-layer salad, cheese potatoes, peas, corn casserole, rolls, and a turkey that took about two hours longer to cook than expected. It was only a little bit raw. But juicy!!

Chris and Leah got back in time to play a few rounds of Phase 10 before we all passed out in our designated sleeping areas, where visions of sugar-plums danced through our heads.

Sunday morning, we were pleased to discover that Santa had shown up early. There were dozens of presents piled around our tree, and not surprisingly, most of them belonged to Alex. Apparently he convinced Jolly Ol' Saint Nick that he had been a good boy this year, or at the very least, that he was a little more nice than he was naughty.

Murphy* designated himself as Alex's pinch present-opener, so when Alex was tired of unwrapping, Murphy opened the presents and then Alex played with them.

He got a ball...

...a slide...

...aLightning McQueen laptop...

...a Magna-Doodle...

...a See-and-Say...

...books...

...a Radio Flyer tricycle...

... and a Sit-and-Spin that plays loud and obnoxious music (thanks a lot, Auntie Leah and Almost-Uncle Chris).

He also got to open one of his "big gifts" from Santa because Santa didn't think that he'd have room to transport it to Peoria in his miniva-er, his sleigh, so that he could open it on Christmas morning.

The rest of us got some fun things, too, like scarves, handbags, and serving platters.

After presents were opened, we had a big breakfast and then got ready to play with all of our fun stuff. Well, we got ready to watch Alex play with all of his fun stuff. Fun times ahead...

*Please, please believe that my dog is only wearing a sweater because he is suffering from some mysterious ailment that causes him to chew all of the hair off of his back, and if he wasn't wearing this cute little sweater, he'd be wearing a full-body shield fashioned out of a tube sock. I just went with the lesser of two evils...