Christmas with Jake and Amy and Christmas Eve

On December 23, we decided that Timmy could open one of his presents from us.  Since he had watched me take the toys from his closet and then wrap them (wow...he was okay until I wrapped the one he really wanted), we thought he should be rewarded for not busting into them because he had eyed them all day but didn't touch them.  He did a lot better this year opening presents and really got the hang of it Christmas Eve.  Practice makes perfect!

So, he opened the Sodor Power Station, which he loves.  His aunt and uncle came upstairs a little later to have Christmas.  Timmy got some Thomas pajamas and a book of animals.  It is truly amazing to see how much he has learned over the past year.  If he had received the book last year he probably would have been able to say maybe a dozen or so animals.  This year he was able to say one or two a page with just a quick glance.  I simply cannot believe how much he's learned and how much he has grown.

Erik received a Cobra shirt from Jake and Amy.  If you knew how much these guys had liked G.I. Joe when they were little you would understand.

Timmy watched me wrap Amy and Jake's presents and did a good job handing them out too.  He's such a helpful little Timmy!  =)  The funny thing was, that apparently he identified the wrapping paper type with whose presents were whose and so he didn't want to open some of his presents the next day because he thought they belonged to his aunt and uncle.  What a funny guy!

Because we were leaving early on Christmas Day to head down to Tucson, we decided to open our presents after lunch and before Timmy took a nap.  Needless to say, it was a very Thomas Christmas at our house.  He got a few Thomas DVD sets from his Grandma and Grandpa Mech and his Uncle TJ, a really cool scanimation book from Uncle TJ (you'd kinda have to see it to truly understand), a t-shirt and sweatshirt that his Grandma Mech had embroidered with Thomas, and his ornament.

We were also surprised at Christmas by having gifts not only from my brother (the only gift we were even expecting) but also additional gifts from my parents (we had already figured out and discussed the gift from them over a month ago).  My brother got us Season Two of Heroes which is a TV show we watch weekly.  This actually came at a really good time because we just finished Season One about a week before we left.  We also received Season One and Season Two of Robin Hood a show on the BBC.  It's a different take on the traditional Robin Hood story but we like it and really like how the people playing Robin Hood, his crew, and Maid Marian are closer to our age (which is what I would have imagined they would have been anyway).  

Of course there are pictures and they can be found here.