The Fat Man

Christmas was a great time in the McGuirk household.  A few nights before the arrival of the big man, we had dinner with Miss Jeanice, Bode's nanny for kindergarten and first grade.

It was great to catch up with Miss Jeanice, who is in the middle of her year of student teaching.  We asked if she has had any luck finding a job for next year.  She has, and will be spending two years in Jordan teaching English.  It was rather amusing when she explained that it's the perfect time to go, as she doesn't have any baggage, at which point Ashley and I began to referring to each other as our baggage.  Overall, a lovely evening.

Christmas Eve saw the McGuirk family punch their tickets to hell.  We went to the children's service at church, which was very nice.  People are encouraged to sing at these services, which is also very nice.  However, there was one person, who was obviously a person with special needs.  He was singing very loud, but slightly off the beat, and reminded Ashley and me of Warren from There's Something About Mary ("Franks and Beans!")  We could not stop laughing; hence, our extended stay in purgatory.  After church, we came home and hung out, watched some holiday material on TV, and then it was ready for bed.  Bode reminded me to put out some milk and cookies for Santa.  We kept the tree lit so Santa could tell where to place all the presents.

I also took a before and after picture, so we could tell which presents Santa brought.

Bode woke up at a decent hour Christmas morning, and proceeded to tell us that Santa had come, but that he'd forgotten to close the door to the fireplace the whole well.  If our heating bill goes up, I'm blaming Mr. Claus :-)  We then headed out to open some gifts, but before we started, we needed to take some pictures.

I tried to get Joey to stand still, but the little fella was just too excited.  This was the best I could do.

We then got some Mommy and Daddy photos.

After the mini photo-shoot, it was time to dive into the mass of gifts.

The big gift from Santa was the Xbox One.  Bode "knew" he was getting it for a number of reasons, one good, one not-so-good.  Before Christmas, he said he was getting an Xbox One.  We asked him how he knew that and he said, "Because that is what I ordered from Santa."  We tried to explain that Santa isn't a restaurant with the toys items on the menu, but he didn't really buy it.  The acceptable reason he knew was that some of his gifts were games for the Xbox One.  Thus, the anticlimactic final gift.

We had a lovely time on Christmas morning, but the best was yet to come, as Teddy, Charlie, and Uncle Dave were coming down.