Holiday Wrap Up, Part IV: The Gifts.

Sometimes you have to look past all the mushy, sentimental, overdone, overwrought, "giving is the greatest joy of all" riff raff and get down to brass tacks: everyone gets gifts on Christmas, and that is awesome.
So, what did Santa leave for us under the tree?

(Side note: last month we had The Talk with Michaela about Santa Claus, and she took it all in stride.  Now she has a loose tooth and asked us the other day about the Tooth Fairy.  "Tell me the TRUTH," she said.  Oh, how quickly the dominoes of childhood dreams fall once the first piece is knocked down...)

In no particular order...

 The girls loved their new American Girl Dolls, Marie Grace (for Jenna) and Kaya (for Michaela).  Jenna got every gift but one from the American Girl Doll catalog: the doll, clothes, bitty baby diaper bag, accessories for Julie, and a Marie-Grace matching nightgown.  And a beautiful sapphire blue dress from Gymboree that is stunning.

 I was beyond thrilled with my gifts- an iPhone, lipgloss and a bottle of Joseph Carr Cab Sav, signed by the vinter Joseph Carr himself.  I also got an AMAZING outdoor fireplace from my parents which I am dying to use.  Other great presents included a pen and ink drawing of our house, a gorgeous Beekman Brothers cookbook, a giftcard to a restaurant Dan and I are dying to go to, and another volume of my blog published.   Lovely, personal and thoughtful gifts.

 Michaela got four Lego sets and had put all them them together by December 27th.  She really loved doing them, and worked with both Dan and my dad to assemble them.  Good quality time.  I hope she stays interested in them.  Michaela also got some American Girl doll things, a new book, some shirts, and a photo album to put all her pictures from her weekends with Aunt Jaime and Uncle Michael as well as her Girl Scout camping weekends and Nature's Classroom.  Jenna and Michaela also both got Nintendo 3DS systems from their grandma and grandpa, which were a big hit.

 Alec got a wonderful assortment of cars, trucks, more cars, Cars stuff, Toy Story stuff, cars, books about cars, books about Cars, and the chop saw featured in the above picture, which he loved.  The kid LOVES cars, Cars, and tools.

 This was the scene on Christmas Day, when our normally empty living room was taken over by little brown-haired Italian children. And Alec.  And they all had gifts to open.  Very fun!

 Hmmm. Legos.  Looks like Alec is pretty interested in his sister's stuff...

These are four of the six fleece-backed Christmas blankets that I made for all my nieces and one for Alec.  I tucked a winter/ Christmas book inside each blanket.  This idea seemed much better in October, when I came up with it, and less so on December 23rd when I finally stitched up the last one.  The girls all seemed to like their blankets and Alec hardly glanced at his.  He could NOT have been less interested in it.  Win some, lose some.

And Dan? Dan got a bit of the shaft this year.  Yeah, he got an iPhone as well, and he got a new personalized calendar lovingly made by his wife, filled to the brim with pictures of his adoring kids, and a new Christmas tree ornament, but do you know what else he got?  New boxer shorts. 
And that's LAAAAAAAAAAME.

It was a great Christmas.