Well let's see what went on this weekend. I got out of work a little early on Thursday so I took that opportunity to go home and try and sort everything out for the next couple of days. On Friday we headed down to Terri's parent's house for their day of "Christmas." Now that we have Gage, we've ended up splitting the holidays by two days instead of splitting one day into two. So, we spent several hours at their house and then headed over to Tom's parent's house and visited with them for an hour or so. Gage was content to bang on his little congo drum that Tom bought for him. It's odd to hear the children's song "Bingo" played in a calypso style. Then we headed back to Terri's parent's house. By this time, her uncles had shown up and we started to hand gifts back and forth. Amazingly enough, I actually got decent gifts this year. It took 13 years, but it finally happened. We finished up too late at their house to surprise my mom at Christmas Eve service at church (which is where we would have been every other year) so we just headed home. We attempted to put Gage to bed close to his normal time, but apparently Christmas, Santa, Presents, and Excitement are all hot-wired into little kids. He was so wound up and just wouldn't go to sleep. We finally got him settled down after 11 and we headed to bed. Or at least Terri did. Unbeknownst to her, I had played Santa on my own. We had actually agreed that we weren't getting Gage anything this year since the grandparent's were already going insane. But, I couldn't resist. So, I went downstairs to get everything out of hiding and wrap it all up and get it under the tree.
Christmas morning we got to sleep in a little by bringing Gage into bed with us and getting him to take a little nap. Then when we headed downstairs, Terri and Gage were surprised. So, I actually got out the video camera (which hasn't been used since about 10 minutes after his birth) and taped him opening presents up. Which caught a nice shot of him getting hold of the cat's tail and giving it a good yank for Christmas. And, as we discovered, if you're going to sneak around and play Santa, make sure you check to see whether batteries are included or not. I really want to go back to the Toys R Us and get something for free. They used to run a promotion that awarded something to you if the cashier didn't try to suggestively sell batteries. I know this for a fact because of two occurrences. The first one, I was buying legos (which only need batteries if you're buying the train set). The cashier asked me if I needed any batteries with my purchase. I picked up the box of legos, shook it, and said, "No, I think I'll just make the noises myself." The cashier then apologized and said that it was a store policy that they had to ask with every purchase, regardless of what it was. So, the next time I was in, I ended up not finding what I was looking for, so I just bought a candy bar. The cashier didn't ask if I wanted batteries and I got a free drink to go with my candy bar. Anyway, then we all got showered and dressed and headed over to my Uncles' house for my family's Christmas.
Thankfully my Grandmother was well enough to make the trip. So, we had everyone there and we had an excellent Christmas dinner and then Gage fell asleep on my Mom's lap. My mom, who had been pretty busy this year, didn't actually wrap most of the presents. So, the Leap Pad that they had gotten for Gage was just sitting there. My uncle David proceeded to open it up, put in the batteries and start playing with it. Between him and my parents, they've played with it more than Gage has. As soon as my Mom got there, she took Gage (as per her norm) and they went upstairs. They came back later and were very mysterious about it. Well, my mom was, I don't think Gage knows what mysterious is yet. So, as we're passing out gifts, my mom hands Terri and I a box and launches into a story about the day after Thanksgiving when she and my dad watched Gage while Terri and I worked. They took him (against our wishes) to a portrait studio to have Christmas pictures taken. They even bought him a little outfit especially for it. Turns out, a couple days after they took the pictures, the studio called my mom. Gage was chosen as "kid of the month" and they wanted to know if they would sign release forms so they could hang his picture in the studio. My mom panicked. She didn't expect anything like that. So, she called my Uncle who just laughed hysterically. Between the two of them they managed to get the studio to hold off until after Christmas when Terri and I could call and authorize the whole thing. I found out this morning that the studio isn't open til Wednesday, so I'm sure they'll be more on that later.
Anyway, the festivities were wonderful at my Uncles' house and we made plans to see this just after the new year. Then we headed home and Gage once again wasn't ready for bed. He finally fell asleep and we cleaned up some of the post-Christmas mess and headed to bed ourselves.
Sunday morning we slept in (we aren't sure if we actually missed church or not) and had a leisurely morning awaiting Joe's phone call. He and DEK were tailgating before the Steeler's game and we were going to meet them at Damon's to have lunch and watch the game. Which turned out to be a good experience all around. We got some pictures of Gage with both of them, they got to see Gage flirting with the waitress and the food wasn't bad. We also got our annual dose of the holiday baking frenzy that is DEK's mom. MMMM, I was happy for those last night when I was prowling around for a snack.
After we got home from watching the Steeler's game, Tom called and stopped by on his way home from the Steeler's game to drop off some more stuff for Gage that his brother and sister-in-law had got for him. So, Gage did pretty well this year. We only have to catch up with a few more friends and this year's holiday experience will be over. Thankfully.