Santa brought Susie some !!!exclamation points!!!

So Santa came, Santa dropped some gifts, and Santa gave the O'Neills a whole lotta love. Especially the littlest O'Neill - not Lily (though she got lots of Christmas love too).

While Liam hasn't quite gotten the hang of tearing open a present - he understands seeing a new toy for the first time. With lots of pointing and grabbing we figured out really quickly which toys were on the Wishlist in his head. And which toys he is starting to discover now, a day later.

We spent the Eve at my in-laws like always. We ate wonderful food! And goodies! And drank wine. Or rather *I* drank wine with Uncle Ryan's girlfriend and my mother-in-law. We exchange gifts. HO HO HO! Indeed! Liam got a big Elmo...

and something to bang the crap out of.


Among many other great and wonderful gifts Including books! Yay for books! Cause the boy likes his "buh." And clothes! Cause Mum likes the boy to look goooooood.


After Liam was nestled snug in his bed - Santa pulled up in his sleigh. Of course a few shots were taken of his handiwork.


As you can see, Santa did not leave wrapped gifts this year. From what I hear some families never wrap Santa's gifts (except for big things like bikes, sleds and such). Did your family have wrapped gifts from Santa? Now or in the past? My parents wrapped everything but the biggies - bikes, sleds, dollhouse, desk, etc). AND our stocking gifts were wrapped except maybe for candy. Must have been quite a night for my parents when they had all four kids under the same roof.

So Santa decided after observing Liam's lack of interest in tearing paper Christmas Eve, to not stay up til the wee hours wrapping. So Santa actually got a decent night's sleep!

Christmas morning we awoke to discover that Liam's diaper overfloweth onto his fun festive pajama bottoms. After a quick change I practically had to drag Liam downstairs as that morning of all mornings he had discovered his voice echos in the stairwell. While Dada is videotaping! So we "eh!" "ah!"-ed for a bit before I finally gave up and carried him the rest of the way.

Wow he was impressed with his stash and went straight to the wagon. Inside he saw an Elmo phone that two of his friends have and he had been coveting on every playdate. After that, he went for Dusty the Vaccuum. The Elmo phone is discarded to the right in the picture.


Christmas Day brought my parents and sister and her family to my house. We exchanged gifts! And had fun! And headed to my cousin's house across town to consume mass quantities of food. Cause it's Christmas. And it's the law.

These photos do not cover the full range of food which included many appetizers like chicken with 3 dipping sauces. And shrimp. And scallops wrapped in bacon! That's right! I SAID BACON. And homemade salsa and chips.

There was much prime rib had by Dan. Much.

Someone enjoyed his ham, mashed potatoes and homemade mac & cheese a whole LOT. Had fun with his Auntie too.

And his Papa.

This morning was spent discovering the Little People A-Z Zoo!! 26 individual animals! And a zookeeper with a little car! And things that make animal noises! The hippo was immediately thrown on sight. Not sure what THAT was about. And Mama did not always put the right animal in the right place which caused more animals to be thrown. Mama! Eh! But all in all we had fun!! And I learned that there was an animal called a Urial! I missed the Urial chapter in life science.

And Liam pooped. Finally. I guess his Christmas didn't include much fiber.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah to all my family and friends!!

And tell me, did Santa wrap your gifts - now or back then??