Christmas with the kids 2017

Friday night was Christmas with all the kids.

"PREE-senting... Baby Claus!"

Credits to Lilly for getting this pose together

"Hmmm...I smell presents..."

Thief caught red handed with Mommy's pizza

Photobombing a present to Aaron

Lessee.... which child to clobber first...  maybe KC...

Pet robot dinosaur...

Lilly got makeup stuff, art supplies, and a whiteboard/chalkboard easel... Aaron got a sci-fi game/book, the dino, and the big hit of the night, an air-hockey board...

and, of course, clothes...

A book on the Israeli air force and how they saved the nation for me- SCORE!

And this thing that Isaiah got was a rideable lion whose mane lights up and spins a bunch of balls.  More balls can be fed into his mouth and shoot out a door in his chest.

 But the highlight for me was the bag of duplo blocks we got Peanut.  He sat down by himself, oblivious to further chaos, and played with them... I joined him minutes later, and we spent a bunch of time just "talking" and taking blocks apart.

A far less enthusiastic re-enactment of Aaron's reaction to the hockey game.  KC set it up in his bedroom and several games ensued... with KC proudly claiming victory every time, show-off!

Later, while Peanut and the ladies continued Duplo play, I re-established a tradition.  Years and years ago, when I was about Aaron's age, my Dad came home from work with pants that had gotten ripped- so he had me rip them the rest of the way off.  Eventually he was left with a laughing kid and a fabric-covered belt.  Last night, I grabbed an old t-shirt under my sweat shirt- and during a break in the action, had Aaron and Lilly rip IT off!  Once they grasped the idea of grabbing the hols and ripping (instead of grabbing the collar and choking me), they had a blast, screaming and tearing and warning each other, "Don't touch the armpits!"  Afterwards, I celebrated their victory by going back out to the living room, catching my foot on the baby barrier, and falling flat on my face!

Don't worry, I was not hurt... earlier in the day, I had done something to jam my left arm, and catching myself with my right hand and knee seemed to reverse it.


As the night wore on, Jessica gathered the older kids to distribute to parents/grandparents, and Isaiah started to fall asleep in Gampaw's lap.  I handed him back over to KC (before he had TWO sleepers on his hands), and got that same ol' "Why are you going?" look from the little guy.  I think he likes Gampaw...