At around 8am, I woke up to eyes peeking at me from the side of the bed.  Angry Kid was staring at me with bright eyes, stating “Mama it’s daylight time, time to wake up, it is Christmas.”  I think I moaned something to Angry Husband who was already in the front room.

Within a few minutes from making my way out into our living room, I saw this.  Angry Kid received these mazes and some creatures from the HexBug collection.  He loves those.  He is OBSESSED with those little bugs.  I had Angry Husband take a video of him at Target a few months ago asking for them. Don’t mind my coffee table, it is a mess.

Angry Kid was quite excited here. He was not happy because I told him to “NOT” open the boxes of Legos yet.  He was quite annoyed at that.  Plus, I asked him to smile for a picture.  I got smart this Christmas.  I had a few family members send gift cards for Angry Kid before Christmas.  I took the cards and purchased/wrapped items that I knew he wanted.  I didn’t have to spend hours wandering around the store with him, and I spent the allotted amount.

In between gift wrapping and snacking, I managed to bake several dozen cookies.  I used recipes from the back of the Nestle Tollhouse packages.  I’m a fancy baker like that.  See the white chocolate chips and butterscotch chips packages for recipes.  I’m too tired to hunt down recipes and such.

My parents finally arrived. I was about to send out a search party.  Angry Kid was wondering where they were, and I was getting hungry.  Seriously, they live like ten minutes away and it took forever.

I received a 50mm lens from my parents. I’ve been wanting this lens for awhile. I’m super excited.  But one of my surprise gifts was this Swatch watch.  How cool is this watch.  I think it says “Julie” so much.  Angry Kid was busy tearing through wrapping paper while we slowly opened our gifts.  Angry Kid wasn’t quite impressed with the large amount of clothing that he was received.

I was a failure at taking photos on Christmas morning.  I only took less than 20 photos and most of them were on my iPhone.  I was too busy making dinner, lasagna, baking, and organizing.  I had Angry Husband take some photos when Angry Kid opened the “big” present from my parents.  My mom has watched Angry Kid fawn over this at the Apple store for quite some time now. Yep, she gave in. That is what grandparents do.

Angry Kid showed me parents that awesomeness of Angry Birds.  My mom and dad were cracking up.  They were quite impressed with Angry Kid’s skills.  And don’t worry, before we even downloaded any apps on the iPad, we set all of the restrictions so that he can’t make any purchases in the store or from within apps.

Within a few minutes, Angry Kid had already personalized the iPad.  And a few minutes after 7pm on Christmas Night, the vomiting began.  Angry Kid barely ate on Christmas Eve and ate nothing on Christmas Day.  We spent the better part of an hour de-puking our couch.

Angry Husband took Angry Kid to the Urgent Care the next day. The diagnosis was double ear infection.  We’ve had no more puke since then.  While Angry Kid was chilling on the couch Saturday and Sunday night, we put away all of the Holiday decorations.

The funniest thing all week was Angry Kid pointing at all of the houses with lights still on.  He kept saying, “Christmastime is over. They need to turn off and take down those lights.” Gee, I think someone is a little OCD.  I had to explain that not everyone takes their decorations down right away.

P.S. Now Angry Husband is sick. Send HELP now.

Friday (Christmas Eve) was my husband’s birthday.  Of course the phone started ringing really early and off to work he went.  He said that he would return in a few hours and he did.  When he came home, we discussed our surprise for my parents.  We were getting them a flat screen television and a stand to go with it.  My mom has been shopping or what we like to call “complaining” about their TV for quite some time. I  sent a text message to one of our family friends and told them that the husband and I would be a little late for Christmas Eve dinner, and that my parents would be bringing Angry Kid with them.  We figured it would be about two hours to set-up and install the new TV.

I called my mom and asked her to take Angry Kid to our friend’s house. She asked, “why”, of course.  I told her that Angry Husband had to work late and I had to go to the airport and pick someone up.  I could hear my dad literally cursing in the background.  I hung up with my mom and told Angry Husband about the conversation.  He may have rolled his eyes.  He then started gathering his tools, and exclaimed, “let’s go now”. So I called my mom and asked if someone was home.  She said my dad would be home.  So we gathered all of our things, the tools, the TV, and the stand and made our way to my parent’s house.  My dad did not understand why we were there.  I mentioned  that we were going to surprise them for Christmas and that he was not being very cooperative.  So I pointed to the truck and said, “your gift is in the truck”.

We started clearing out their old entertainment center, which took FOREVER.  My mom had a ton of stuff hidden in all of the crevices and cabinets.  We piled the stuff in the spare bedroom, and in the middle of it, she came home.  My dad said something like, “how come you didn’t tell me about this?” My mom said, “I didn’t know.” Yep, that’s right, because it was a SURPRISE…sigh.

So a few hours later, Angry Husband finished his project.  I took Angry Kid on some errands with my mom while most of the work was being done.  Angry Kid wanted to “help”.  After finishing up, we headed home to get changed.  We arrived at our friend’s house within an hour of our original expected time.  I got to tell the entire story of how our “Christmas Gift Surprise” did not go well.

Angry Husband got some birthday cake that our friend, Karen made.  It was a red velvet with a cream cheese frosting.  It was really really really good.  But really, the kids were going nuts because they wanted to open some presents.

Angry Kid got a Nerf Gun. Yippee. I did not want to buy any Nerf Guns because I knew someone else would.  It is not fun when someone shoots you in the back of the head with one of those.  Jacob got a Kindle.  He loves to read, and he was VERY excited about it.

Even though Angry Kid wasn’t feeling well all day, he managed to load up the gun, and use all of us for target practice.  Doesn’t he look like a natural with that gun.  I’m finding these darts everywhere around this house today.  Angry Husband bought even more darts at Target today, grrrrr….

Angry Kid LOVES Jacob, and asks to see him all the time.  They are two of a kind.  It is quite hilarious.  After a busy and long day, we headed home.  Angry Kid passed out in the car, and we slipped him into his bed.

I left out some reindeer food, cookies, and milk, and turned off all the lights.  At 8:00am, the next morning (Christmas Day), I was abruptly woken up by Angry Kid.  He said, “Mama, it is daylight time, and Santa came”.

I will continue the story of Christmas Day in another post….

P.S. Don’t ever try to surprise my parents.  They ruin the fun, sigh…