Some Disassembly Required

I used to think I'd have to fight the "Some Assembly Required" battle with toys. If only it were that simple. Getting the toy out of the package is the ultimate challenge. Cut through the tape, tear the cardboard back, untangle the twist ties, remove the retainer clip, remove the twist ties from the toy....It's almost as if some factory worker in China was thinking "Sure, they can have the toy, but I'll be darned if they'll be able to play with it! Ha ha!" Lucky for me, I own bolt cutters. Twist ties are no match for a pair of Christmas-red bolt cutters.



We saw Santa Claus on the pedestrian bridge over I-94 on the way to church on Christmas Eve. We honked and told Alison that it looked like he was on his way to our house. When we got home from church, Santa filled the stockings and put a couple of extra presents under the tree. We had a light dinner of little smokies, "krab" salad, crackers and cheese spread then got to work on opening presents.

Eli was quite pleased with his gifts. His thought process seems to be "Hey, that's cool. Can I eat it?"



We woke on Christmas morning with nothing to do but play with toys and have breakfast. After french bread french toast, sweet potato pancakes and mimosas, we started scooping the rest of the packaging and wrapping paper into garbage bags and playing with toys. A great way to spend Christmas.



Alison had a lot of fun playing with the play-doh set from Aunt Betsy. It's got a press, and a canister of brown play-doh. Ew. Maybe we should use a different color next time.




On the list for next year: bolt cutters, 55 gallon contractor trash bags, and wrapping paper.