Christmas' Top Ten

It was a fabulous holiday week! Josh loved having family here all week and the attention that resulted from being the smallest (and cutest) person in the house. We were blessed with Josh's sweet smiles over the past week. It is impossible to recreate all the memories and laughs. However, I can narrow it down.

"Christmas Top Ten List"

ONE: What's Christmas, without a little Pot?

*(Names have been changed to protect the innocent).

"Fred*" received, not only a red Pimp hat, but also a Santa-adorned gift bag filled with illegal drug paraphernalia from "Bob*," his youngest son. Due to the family-friendly nature of this blog, I can't go into too much detail. However, I will say that an "herb-smelling" candle, questionable pupil dilation, and a suspicious daughter led to Pa being the "butt" of endless "munchies" jokes this Christmas.

TWO: I'll take that!

Josh really got excited about the annual " Christmas Eve White Elephant" exchange at PaPa and Grandmommy's house on Christmas Eve. As soon as Aunt Betsy opened the John Deere Fruit Snacks, he beelined it over and stole them away from her. Technically, it was his turn to open or steal, so I couldn't' get mad at his lack of manners.

3. Santa's (drunk) Helpers

After a fun Christmas Eve with Chris' extended family, we headed home to welcome Santa Claus and help him with some last minute construction projects. This included setting up Josh's big Christmas gift, a new train table! Picture a lawyer, an engineer, and an architect who have had WAY too much of this........ trying to formulate a perfectly laid track for Josh's trains. It was quite a sight to see, to say the least.

4. The Big Reveal!

In the end, the table looked fabulous! It was quite a hit with Josh on Christmas morning. I thought Josh would explode with excitement over the train table, but I think he was so overwhelmed with alllllll the presents he didn't know what to do with himself.

5. The Clear Winner

Josh received this super neat "larlarlar" (helicopter) from Pickles. It was one of the first presents he opened on Christmas morning and he was so excited about it. A little too excited it seemed. It took a lot of convincing to make him leave the larlarlar to open his other gifts. After he opened the remaining gifts, he "sized" them up and decided the Larlarlar was better and promptly set the others aside and ran to the helicopter. He slept with it that afternoon. The boy knows what he wants.

6. Twinkle Twinkle

MeMe and Barn gave Josh this night light turtle that projects the moon and stars onto the ceiling. He is a big fan of the moon, so I knew he would love it. He likes to carry it around the house and try it in the other rooms. He has also started singing "Twinkle Twinkle little star" to the turtle. So cute.

7. The Turkey Derrick.

Due to our minuscule oven, we decided to fry our Christmas turkey this year. Chris did a large amount of research on the topic of frying a turkey (Alton Brown's Fried Turkey Video is not only highly informative, but hilarious- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E270Qx5OpxU) and was all prepared to battle the bird on Christmas afternoon.

Chris constructed a "Turkey Derrick" to decrease the likelihood of anyone getting blown- up in the turkey-frying process. I love that our fancy Christmas dinner involved 4 gallons of peanut oil, cinder blocks, a ladder, a pulley-system, a fire extinguisher, and several trips to Home Depot.

Classy!

8. Plum Pudding

Another highlight of the Christmas meal, was the annual lighting of the traditional Christmas Pudding. As always, Dad poured a bottle of whiskey on top of the cake and mom set it on fire, resulting in a really good dessert (and awesome picture)!

9. A Good Deal.

For some reason, we decided the day after Christmas would be a good day to go to the outlet malls. The deal of the century was this Coach purse! I have wanted a Coach purse for several years ( I bought a ghetto fake one 3 years ago in NY, but it only lasted a month). Well, Anna and I ventured into the Coach Outlet store and we both scored a ridiculous deal on a purse! Later in the day, there were so many people trying to take advantage of the sale they had to form a line outside and let them in one by one! It was an insane day to shop, but we had a great time anyway.

10. Pure Joy.

The best memory I will take from this Christmas is seeing the smiles on Josh's face. Despite another cold, not much sleep, and a hectic schedule, Josh was a great sport. Having a child makes Christmas special on a whole new level. Thanks for making this my favorite Christmas ever, Josh!