Erin and I started out Christmas morning with making an ornament for Grace. It proved to be more difficult than we anticipated. It took five tries. Grace wanted to play with the dough instead of making a hand print.
I think the final product turned out well though and I’m hoping Grace appreciates it as she gets older.
Why do I think this if the first of many early Christmas mornings looking like I stayed out all night?
I got Erin an iPhone for Christmas and she loved it. In fact, we barely talked for days as she constantly played with her new toy.
We then headed out to the Danish Retirement Home for Christmas lunch with my grandmother, Maren. Maren lights up every time she sees Grace so we’ve been trying to visit her more often these days.
After lunch we went over to Jim and Noreen’s house where Noreen hosted dinner for 18 people. Great work Noreen, it was delicious (while minus all the cheese based dishes). Even though Grace and Rory are only 2 days apart, they don't really seem to acknowledge each other. I read this is called "parallel play" for infants. I'm sure by the next Christmas they will be inseparable play buddies though.
Jim was recently added to the TSA watch list and now can't be trusted with real silverware, even in his own home. He seems ok with it though.
Hey, my head is not that big! I had a little fun with oversized Santa hat chair covers. You may notice one less chin on big old Mark this year. I lost 14 pounds in a 3-month “fat-off” competition between 4 friends. I won $300 and the losers will be treating me to nice steak dinner at a Chicago steakhouse of my choosing, not Sizzler. Things have been going well for me lately. I also won one of my fantasy football leagues and pocketed a nice $900 grand prize.
I’m not sure what they are called, but each place setting had one of these tear apart tube gifts. Anyhow, we each received different sized kazoos, a music sheet paper hat, and a music sheet. Let’s just say the Ryan/Connors/Barton/Mogensen/Taylor kazoo group won’t be auditioning for America’s Got Talent’s upcoming season. We did have a ton of fun and Uncle Mike graciously offered to be the conductor until he decided the kazoo group was lost cause. At that point, he broke into a 2-minute freestyle version Beyonce’s “All the Single Ladies” which brought the house down. Although he stopped short of the full black leotard Beyonce wore in her video, I thought he nailed it. Aunt Maureen wasn’t quite so sure (see below).
The night ended with a Yankee swap which is always a lot of fun. Grandma Shirley opened a Sonic Care toothbrush which she wasn’t so excited about. Luckily, someone else liked it and stole it from her.
Grace was showered with many gifts this year mainly by her two sets of grandparents. I think she enjoys tasting each present more than playing with them. Of course, she loved playing with the leftover wrapping paper and boxes. Special thanks to Erin for getting me a super fancy camera for Christmas that took so many of these great pictures. Although she seems to like it even more than I do and has become quite the paparazzi.
All in all, another great Christmas. Thank all for your generosity.
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