Christmas Recap

Christmas actually went really well this year, despite a few stumbles. We basically just took it easy, and limited ourselves to one event per day, and it was magical. (We did have a couple of friends come into town and didn't manage to connect with them, but that was probably for the best: we were dealing with a brief round of tummy troubles, and some gifts you really just don't want to share.)

Christmas day this year was spent with the Beautiful Wife's parents, who came over to our house. The boys were allowed to open their Santa presents as soon as they woke up, which they did. They then spent twenty-five minutes coaxing Secondborn's Hatchimal out of its egg, while Daddy called out helpful things like, "If its eyes turn red, that means you have to dribble some blood on the top of the egg," or "Just remember: never feed it after midnight." The in-laws arrived about then, and we had the exchange of family gifts. They then went back over to their house, and returned a while later with their half of the midday meal. And then we just... relaxed.

We'd planned to meet with my side of the family today, and that went every bit as well: we met at my father's house, made a quick gift exchange, and then went out to eat barbecue. And it was what holidays should be: easy, relaxed, enjoyable.

Among the more notable presents this year were a pair of stilts that Secondborn received, and which he's been practicing on for the last forty-eight hours. He's... surprisingly good. Firstborn got a Kindle Paperwhite, the one with the built-in reading light, so he may never sleep again. And I'm mainly just happy that we did this without stressing out, flipping out, or anything-else-ing out.

I'd kind of forgotten that was possible. It's good to know that it is.