Christmas-Time Monkeyshines

Daddy must have been a pretty good boy this year because Santa brought him not only one, but two special visits from his favorite little ones. The first of these came this past Saturday, which lasted from 10:30 or 11 in the morning until 5pm. The second visit was Christmas Day from 10am to almost 2pm – and they both were AWSOME! We played, danced, sang songs opened some presents, rode around on Daddy’s back, read some books, watched some shows, ate some yummy lunch, took a long hot bath, colored on our new easel, snacked and played some more! There is so much to tell that I won't even try, but I'll try to hit some of the highlights.

Daddy took the day off on Friday and did what has become the annual Christmas Toys-R'-Us run, which is one of my favorite things in the world to do (I also enjoyed it, knowing that in another couple of years it will be Best Buy that I will be going to, and that those high-tech goodies preferred by teenage monkeys will cost quite a bit more). I was on a mission to get an easel for creating beautiful and priceless works of art, some dolls (a step above Fischer Price little people, but also a step below Barbi - Miranda is advancing at a staggering pace), and a Marble Mania Extreme set for Zach. I stuck to my plan and to my budget and had a fun and successful trip.

We opened a few presents on Saturday, chief among these was our new art easel that Santa had brought. We also opened a beautiful photo album (with family photos already inside) and a combination music book/keyboard, both from Nancy Elman (much thanks!). We also opened two really cool books from Uncle Warren and Aunt Leslie, as well as a really cool Crayola invisible ink coloring set form Uncle Jim and Aunt Lauren (much thanks as well!!). Miranda set right to work at the easel and produced the first of what will no doubt be many masterpieces.

There were lots of games to be played, and we played them all. Miranda rediscovered the tub toys (which led to another installment of bath-time (Miranda likes to drink the bathwater and has to be discouraged from doing so - Zach used to do this too. Daddy likes bath-time, not only because it is very sweet, but also because it gives him a chance to sit down. After bath-time, Miranda decided to play a little dress-up. She found that it takes a lot more than just an attitude to fill Daddy's shoes, but she looked very cute trying to stomp around the apartment in size 10 and 1/2 Timberland boots (aka: shit-kickers).


On Monday (Christmas Day) we opened our special presents: Miranda got four sets of big-girl dolls, with a kitchen set and a living room set. Zach got his pre-assembled Marble Mania Extreme toy (the pre-assembly required four uninterrupted hours the night before, as Daddy put together over 350 parts and followed 47 pages of instructions - amazingly, it actually worked). Both the dolls and the marble thing were hugely successful presents, and both kids were really excited and were good about sharing their special toys with each other, which made Daddy very proud and made Zach and Miranda much more likely to receive gifts like these in the future. Miranda did kind of horde the marbles from Zachy's toy, but Zach was able to make do with a few less and enjoyed himself immensely. (note to self: buy a bag of marbles)

We played pretty hard, so some refreshments and well deserved rest were definitely in the offing, so we had a light lunch and cuddled-up for some leisure time. Daddy's little monkeys were due to travel to Pennsylvania later in the day, so Mommy came by to collect them in the early afternoon. When all was said and done, however, Daddy decided that this was the best Christmas ever! Stay tuned for our next thrill-packed episode: New Years Monkeyshines.