Phew! My brother landed safely at midnight on Wednesday, just in time for a quick nap and a 3 hour car ride to our house in VT for the Christmas festivities. After 2 days of fun and celebration, I've established some new rules for next year's Christmas.
1. DON'T TELL THE KIDS THAT UNCLE MATT IS COMING UNTIL HE'S IN THE DRIVEWAY! The hubby and I did too good a job getting our son pumped up for Christmas, and the impending arrival of 2 special visitors: the fat guy in the power-red suit, and, more importantly, UNCLE MATT!! From literally the second he woke up on Christmas Eve to the second Grammy's car pulled into the driveway, the big question was "Is Uncle Matt here yet?" The inevitable series of "not yet", "no" and "almost!" led to a bit of crankiness that frazzled both parent's nerves, and dampened a bit of the Christmas spirit.
2. ONCE YOU TELL SANTA WHAT YOU WANT, YOU CAN'T CHANGE IT! For the last two months, when my son was asked what Santa would bring him, he would promptly and confidently reply "a monster truck!" When sitting on Santa's lap, blind from the multiple flash bulbs, he still squeaked out "Monster truck!" Mommy and Daddy were relieved that Santa was bringing something small enough to fit in our house, fun enough to keep him entertained until the rest of the tree could be opened, and not so crazy expensive that Santa would need to re-budget Christmas. Imagine my surprise when, the night before Christmas Eve, my son informed me that Santa would be bringing him a Hot Wheel like Oliver at school had. Huh? Fortunately, after some additional questioning, I learned that he did not mean a ride-around bike thing, but some of the 99 cent little cars. Specifically, a race car kind. Thank God Santa had already picked some up for his stocking.
3. SHOW GRAMMY THE DICTIONARY DEFINITION OF "SCALED DOWN". After last year's crazy, insane, over-the-top gift giving, my parents kept swearing that this year would be much more scaled down. Yeah right! Although, my dad pointed out that last year's gifts stuck out about a foot radius around the tree, while this year's managed to fit underneath. Well, thanks very much for your crazy generosity, and we'll work on the whole "less is more" thing for 2009.
4. THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS IS THE PERFECT TIME TO PICK UP A WII FIT! Who knew? When my brother told me there were no Wii Fits to be had in the Bay Area, and he planned to pick one up before he went home, I politely refrained from laughing in his face. After all, it's common knowledge that those things are unavailable anywhere. Imagine my surprise when he waltzed into the local GameStop, where he promptly found one. Imagine my continued surprise when my parents went back an hour later and picked one up for themselves. Apparently all of those crazed shoppers were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I just can't believe it's over already.
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