I woke up around 7:00 and Amanda woke up around 7:30. I think this will probably be the last Christmas in a very long time where Amanda and I are the first people awake on Christmas morning.
When we got Milly up, our plan was to have her open the presents under the tree, then show her the kitchen set, which was around the back of the couch. Unfortunately, before we could get her started she walked towards the kitchen and saw her kitchen set. She went right over to it and started playing with it, so we had a hard time getting her interested in her other presents.
We finally did lure her back into the living room to open gifts, but most of them she’d open then close right back up and go over to her kitchen set again. The only exception was her last present, which was a Cabbage Patch Doll named Leah. Amanda got Milly’s attention by peeling the corner of the wrapping paper and saying, “Look, Milly! There’s a baby inside!” She was pretty excited about it then.
Anyway, the big gift, the kitchen set, was a hit.
I got Amanda some Sanuks and (Milly got her) a scarf. I wasn’t sure if she’s like the scarf. It’s pink and has some sparkling thread in it and was a little outside of what I knew Amanda would like, but I thought it would look nice with a lot of her stuff. She liked it.
I absolutely could not guess what Amanda had gotten me, but I loved what it was. She had sneaked the newspapers and magazines I’d collected about Duke’s 2010 National Championship and put them in frames. I was really blown away by it.
She also got me Fight Club on Blu-Ray, because I often lament that I only have that movie on VHS.
After we opened everything we loaded up the car and went to Richlands to see Amanda’s parents. Milly got some oversized Legos from Michael (might not even be Lego brand, but whatever), which she really liked. She mostly played with those while the rest of us opened our gifts. I got a long-sleeved Duke shirt, a few Xbox games and Carcassonne, a board game I was going to order when my mom let us order our presents that Amanda convinced me not to get because she knew her mom had gotten it for me. We also got a nice 26″ LCD TV for the bedroom.
After that we had a brunch of pancakes and such. Milly took a short nap (sort of- the door to the room we put her in was off its hinges) while Phil and I put her wagon (another gift) together. After she was up, Karen pulled Milly and Bruce (who surprised us by seeming to like riding in it with her) around a bit outside.
We got to Rougemont around 4:40, having left Bruce and Harvey in Richlands so we wouldn’t have to worry about them, and to have more room in the car. I was told that it had snowed a little bit earlier, but there was nothing on the ground when we came through Durham. Just as we were getting to the Rouge, there was some precipitation that looked like it might have been a light smattering of rain and snow. It did snow later when it got dark out though, and it covered the ground pretty well.
My while immediate family was there when we arrived, plus Aunt Reggie, a guy Erin’s dating named Josh and his two kids. David and Ksusha got there a little bit after us.
We had a good time opening presents. My parents got all of us something and had told us not to worry about getting anything for them or the rest of the family. The exception was that everyone got something for the kids and I think most of us got something for Mom and Dad anyway. Other than that we did a White Elephant thing and ended up with a food dehydrator and a blanket.
David didn’t know that Mom and Dad were taking care of the White Elephant gifts and had bought a game, Dominion, with the intent on me ending up with it. Since that was the very game I had ordered for myself from my Mom, we decided to give it to Josh, since he likes games like that too.
Milly got clothes, dolls and, the big thing, an easel. We didn’t get around to opening the easel yet though. We figured there was no point in dragging it out with all the other stuff just yet.
Milly was pretty clingy today and tonight. She’s hardly napped in the last two days, and along with all the traveling and seeing so many people over the past few days, I think it’s just wearing on her.
Andra and Josh has gotten my parents Just Dance, a dancing game for their Wii. We all played it and had a lot of fun laughing at everyone, particularly my dad, who would bump into people to push them out of the way to try to get a better score than them. I’d have played more of it, but my knee started hurting.
We busted out Carcasonne and played a few games of it. It’s a lot quicker to set up and than other Rio Grande games, and very fun. It’s easier to play too, but still involves a good bit of strategy with the game being different every time.
Zach Dotsey