For Christmas eve 2013, as it has gone most years, we spent the evening celebrating with my in-laws. Unlike most years, my brother- and sister-in-law and my niece and nephews weren't there; they had come down with the stomach flu and were holing up at home for the night. This made for a very unique situation for Baylor and Mollie in that they had their grandparents', great-grandparents', and great-aunts' full attention for the whole of the evening. At first, Mollie was a bit shy; some family friends had come over to celebrate with us and Mollie wasn't herself with them there. As the night wore on, though, she warmed up and was much more herself.
Baylor was extra excited because he had had a new experience at school this year; he got to go shopping for family members of his choosing at Santa's Secret Shop, a little store set up in the hallway at school. With eight people to shop for and forty dollars at his disposal, he and an adult helper shopped until there was no money left. They helped him wrap the gifts, and he brought them home the same day, managing all the while to keep his secret under wraps. I thought for sure he would have spilled the beans at some point, but he didn't and it made for a much more sweet surprise come Christmas.
My father-in-law was the first to get his gift, and Baylor decided he wanted to give him a hint to see if he could guess what it was before he opened it. The hint was, "It is like a screwdriver", and the gift was a set of drill bits, something he could actually use. Score one for the little man!
Baylor was extra excited because he had had a new experience at school this year; he got to go shopping for family members of his choosing at Santa's Secret Shop, a little store set up in the hallway at school. With eight people to shop for and forty dollars at his disposal, he and an adult helper shopped until there was no money left. They helped him wrap the gifts, and he brought them home the same day, managing all the while to keep his secret under wraps. I thought for sure he would have spilled the beans at some point, but he didn't and it made for a much more sweet surprise come Christmas.
My father-in-law was the first to get his gift, and Baylor decided he wanted to give him a hint to see if he could guess what it was before he opened it. The hint was, "It is like a screwdriver", and the gift was a set of drill bits, something he could actually use. Score one for the little man!
Next up was my mother-in-law. Her hint was, "There is snow in it." By this he meant that there was "snow" in the name of it, and it turned out to be a snow globe you can put someone's picture in!
Baylor demonstrated how to get the snow to really swirl around.
We exchanged gifts with everyone, and there was lots of happy conversation and catching-up going on. My husband's grandparents got some new bottles of wine for their wine cellar for Christmas, and Mollie helped pass them around to show off the fun, quirky names printed on each bottle.
It was a fun night, to be sure, and while it was tough to leave we had to get back to our house so Santa could make his visit. We knew he was in South America when we left my in-laws because we checked the NORAD Santa Tracker before we left, but we didn't want to cut it too close, you know?
No comments:
Post a Comment