Walking Backwards

Post Christmas malaise, I suppose. Joe is off of work today and the baby is going crazy with the new toys and I'm feeling the letdown of the holiday. I'm just a little sad that we missed doing so much this year and that I really didn't start enjoying the holiday until the end. Now there is a whole year left until we can do it again. However, that is not to say that I didn't really have fun this Christmas (as amazing as it seems with the lead up to it).

Joe and I both discovered a new facet of the holiday that just renewed it for both of us: watching Nicholas enjoy the holiday. It was amazing, I didn't even care what I got, really, I just wanted to watch him get excited about everything. He loved unfilling his stocking and looking at all of his gifts, he loved picking out the presents under the tree that had his name on them and tearing off the wrapping, and he loved showing everyone what he had gotten. My parents and my brother helped him open up the packaging and spent a couple of minutes on each toy. He was smiling the entire time; it was great. I think in the end his favorite toy was a Buzz Lightyear, but he got so much else it was unbelievable. DVDs, books, new sheets, puzzles, a wooden play kitchen; that boy is spoiled.

We did end up with a serious Christmas mishap that equated to us deciding that Santa was going to wait another year to visit. Joe made the mistake of waiting until late Christmas eve to put Nicholas' Christmas gift from Santa together. We were both tired and I had had a Grey Goose martini, so probably not the best time. I was wrapping gifts in a fashion that barely disguised their contents and Joe was putting together the Big Wheel. About five minutes in I hear, um, exclamations of dismay. Joe had put the peddles on without putting the wheel in between them. Unfortunately, there was a lockwasher in place to keep the petal on. We performed the classic moves of beating on it with the hammer, poking at it with a screwdriver, and pulling on it as hard as we could; no luck. So we stuffed it back into a box in the garage and figured we'll buy him another one later. My mother suggested we just return it to the store, but I think they'll notice we've opened it as, even partially assembled, the thing barely fit in the box. Better luck next time.

I hope everyone out there had a great Christmas, that you got lots of cool stuff, and that you're expectations we're fulfilled. I think we did pretty good over here. I am, after all, sad to see it gone for the first time in awhile.