The Terrible Catsafterme

It had been quite a while since I had had the pleasure of watching a little kid open up their gifts from Santa Claus on Christmas morning. But this year, Jackie and Grace stayed over and Santa delivered the gifts to my house. She sluggishly made her way downstairs at about 8am and began to clear the cobwebs from her eyes. Jackie took her out to the kitchen to see if Santa had consumed the lone cookie and glass of milk. Only crumbs remained. The first thing that Grace noticed was that her stocking had been stuffed to brim.

She went through the stocking, item by item, carrying each one over to the coffee table to open it up, revealing the small gifts of candy and trinkets. We then directed her to the stockings that had been removed from the wall that belonged to Tiny and Baby. Each of these contained a wrapped gift for the cats and Grace got to open these.

Grace rips into the presents

Ashleigh and Briana even pried themselves out of bed to watch the gift-opening

Paper everywhere

I’ll give you just this one chance to laugh at my morning hair

Just when she thought that she was done, we pointed out the additional dozen or so wrapped gifts that were now under the tree. She excitedly - but methodically - opened each of the gifts, while Jackie, Ashleigh, and Briana and I watched and secretly yearned for our childhood days of opening so many goodies on Christmas morning. My favorite line of the morning was “look what I have, Brad and Ashleigh and Briana and Mom!!”

Grace and the loot

Grace and Jackie

After the gifts had all been opened and the wrap had been scooped up, Grace got busy playing with all of the toys, Jackie went back to her iPod exploration, and I went straight for the leftover spinach dip and rye bread. I also worked on my website (naturally), thumbed through the new Sitcoms book, and assembled Grace’s Lite-Brite cube. Soon Christi arrived and picked up Ashleigh and Briana so that they could do their visiting with their Big Daddy and Nana. Jackie and Grace successfully took an afternoon nap, but even though I was dog-tired, I couldn’t get to sleep.

Ashleigh and Briana came back home (along with Derek) at about 3:30pm and we left about an hour later for the Murphy Christmas celebration at Mom’s house. Unfortunately, Jackie’s family Christmas get-together was also Christmas evening, so she didn’t get to go to Mom’s house. She had bought gifts for herself and me to participate in the second annual White Elephant gift exchange, but I ended up giving them to Ashleigh and Briana so they could have fun with it.

Brad, Denise, Susan, Mom, Sarah, and Chris conveniently situated around the goodies

Cathy’s gingerbread train

We had a great turnout of the Murphy Clan. The only ones missing in action were Karen and Joe and their family and my cousin Ben. Chris’ wife Sarah was in town from where she is going to school in New York and Lori’s family drove in from Virginia - so it was nice to see these ‘foreigners’. My cousin Debby was going around and flashing her new diamond ring. Her boyfriend Mike had proposed to her and she accepted. Bob’s sister Sherry and her family showed up at the end of the evening as well.

Sarah and Chris. Tell Bev that I forced Chris to smile instead of letting him show a wad of food in his mouth

Lori and Diana beam their Christmas smiles

Debby shows off her engagement ring while juggling gifts and a car of some sort

Denise interferes with the Bob and Bob show

We had another delectible feast with ham and turkey, shrimp, oriental salad, crab dip, green bean casserole, chips, corn casserole, cinnamon scones, pie, soda, and other delicacies. I curtailed myself a little bit after the brutal stuffing I had had the night before - but only a little bit. Besides, I needed to be in tip-top shape to take Chris on at pool. I was the victor in all three games that we played. Granted it was a bit difficult to play with the crowded downstairs and the kids flailing about, but nonetheless, I won - ha ha.

We took a break from pool to go up and continue the chatting, picture taking, and the white elephant gift exchange. I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to what everyone was getting because I wa playing with Adam and watching him dance and snap his fingers to the singing Santa figure (”Shout from the rooftops! I’ll be comin’ soon” and the rest of that freakish song that I cannot get out of my head), but I know that Ashleigh was thrilled that she got the make-up set that Darlene had contributed. The gifts I turned over to the girls were candle holders and a garden frog (Congrats Jacob!).

Mom hands out the kids’ gifts with her helpers Charley, Abbey, Elise, and Tori

Adam assists Darlene at opening his gift

Dan musters his version of a smile with his lovely wife Natalie

Jacob and Lauren snuggle up

In the spirit of the season, Ed and Tom take a break from the great fish vs. maps debate

Charles and Sam and some fine holiday dining

Brittney fills out Diana’s holiday quiz with assistance from Doug and Darlene

Briana, Adam, Denise, and Ashleigh - the Beloved Bunch that they are

Although Chris wanted a rematch, Briana and I ended up playing Jim and Eric in a doubles competition. It was a valiant effort on our part (and Briana made some great shots), but they ended up winning two out of three. I know it had to disappoint Chris when we got called up for family pictures and then we made a hasty exit at the urging of the girls. I’ll give Chris a chance to redeem himself sometime soon.

Grandpa opens his white elephant gift

Bev and Ed - 35 great years

Jim and Jan guard the doorway

Me with my new orange shirt and my little girl

Eric and Nikki call a holiday sibling truce

The picture-perfect Ockermans

The Bob and Tom Show Christmas Special

We were all exhausted from our busy two days. In fact, I crashed almost immediately while watching some Family Ties on DVD. I was asleep by the time Jackie made it back over at about 10:30pm. All in all, another swell Christmas and a worthy entry into my ever-growing holiday canon.

2007 (what’s left of it) will continue…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 6:49 am and is filed under Family Life, Christmas, 2000's - Late. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.