Christmas In Florida- Christmas Day!!!

It's Christmas! It's Christmas!

Cousin Lauren and Tyler celebrate Christmas morning at their house, then we all get together and celebrate once they come over.

It's a good thing too, because I had tons of leaves to blow! (Ever since I saw guys blowing away all the leaves that fell off the tress in NY, I LOVE to put a bunch of stuff on the ground (like puzzle pieces) and move it around with a stick, bat, ruler...whatever I can get my hands on! As I'm hard at work, I say, "I'm blowing leaves!") So I was especially happy to see I had REAL leaves to blow around! Every day I'd spent a good 30 minutes in the driveway, hard at work, making sure all the leaves where moving around!

When Grandpa came outside to join in the fun, Uncle Paul was not too happy to see he had a TWIN!!!! He made Grandpa immediately turn around and change into a new outfit!

After all my hard work, I decided to hang out with baby Da-da!



I was quick to be reminded that she is getting much heavier!



Ummm, can someone come and get her! I'm starting to fall over!



We were all SO excited to see the Trombley family pull in the driveway!

But no one more excited than my Uncle Paul! He was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to open gifts! Especially when he saw how HUGE his gift was from them!!! Unfortunately all that came crashing down!

"How does my travel partner of 2010 NOT KNOW I ALREADY HAVE LUGGAGE!!!"

Boy oh boy did we get a good long laugh out of that one!!! He then proceeded with...
"I'm just thankful I have more gifts to open!" (Little did he know!)

So the gift opening continues and it's one success after another! Until...

Tyler: Here you go Uncle Paul!
Uncle Paul: What's this?!?!
Mommy: Oh no! That's my gift to you...I guess Tyler opened it!!!
Uncle Paul: Are you SERIOUS!!!

This year, Grandma did things differently (Italian style.) We would eat, then open gifts, then eat, and open more gifts! So we decided it was time to fill our bellies yet again!

We sure were hoping the gift opening went better the second time around!

Grandpa: "Wow Jen, thanks so much for my...? Can't you tell I love it! It's written all over my face!"
Grandma: "Jen! You spent how much money on these salt and pepper shakers from Anthropology?!? I have ones that look exactly like it and Jill only spent $1 at a garage sale for me!"

Unfortunately, things didn't go much better for my Uncle Paul this time around either!

"Noooooooo!!!!! I already own this!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Mommy, Daddy, and everyone around me couldn't stop laughing! It just HAS to get better!...and it did!!!

Grandma loved her gift from Auntie Lisa!

And I especially loved my very first SPECIAL AGENT OSO toy!!! Not only that, but I also got a Elmo backpack, and tons of gifts from Grandma and Grandpa! As did Sara and everyone else!

What a wonderful Christmas we were having! We couldn't think of a more perfect way to cap it off...let the Grand Finale begin!!! Unfortunately, Grandma and Grandpa informed us there wasn't going to be a Grand Finale this year. What!?! No Grand Finale! It's OK though, it was replaced with 4 amazing CD's, filled with photos of us growing up! Thanks Mom and Dad! A gift we will always treasure!

Time to head outside to play with all our cool new toys!!!

Cousin Lauren got to try out her new bike...without training wheels!!!

And cousin Tyler got to try out his new "Super Fast Car!", as he would call it! Shhh! Don't tell him, but it really traveled super slow!







It sure was nice to run around and simply spend time with one another!

"LOOK AT THE NERDS!" "LOOK AT THE NERDS!" *sigh* Unfortunately, this is a time Mommy will never forget. These very nice neighbors of ours (whom we've never met) agreed to take a family photo for us. I was squirming quite a bit, so one way Mommy gets me to stop is to say I'll get some Nerds (the candy) if I'm a good boy. Well, she messed up a bit, and when the man was taking our picture, she kept yelling, "Look at the Nerds", "Look at the Nerds!" This got me to stop moving, but, in return, the neighbors thought she was talking about them!

Out of pure humiliation, we all ran inside!!!

It was here that Grandma and Grandpa surprised us...we were in fact having a GRAND FINALE!!! Auntie Lisa and Uncle Paul were on to them! They knew there was NO WAY they'd ever cancel our Grand Finale!!!

(I believe this was the one time Sara cried the entire time we were down in FL!)

This years theme: MINUTE TO WIN IT!!!

Our first game was to get the cookie into our mouth by traveling it down our face!







Next up...the Nerds game! Uncle Paul won!

Next on the list...who can pull all the tissues out of the tissue box the fastest! Daddy won! He was going lighting speed!!! Poor Sara however, no one noticed all the tissues that landed on her. Everyone was too busy eating Nerds! It wasn't until AFTER this picture was taken that anyone noticed she was completely covered!

Auntie Lisa won the quarters game! Somehow she was able to get the quarters into the shot glass with no problem at all! hahaha!

We played the tape measure game, cups, and puzzle game as well!!!

Since Christmas only happens once a year, we sure do wait a long time for this really special day with everyone! But man, Sara and I were talking, and we agree, it sure is worth the wait!!!