Father Frost Pays A Visit

Since we spent Christmas in San Antonio with Nana and Pop, we decided to have our own intimate family "Christmas" on New Year's Day.  We didn't want to have to deal with the dragging of all the gifts down there, only to lose some of the small parts, and then have to schlep it all back up to Dallas with us.  Plus, we decided that we should celebrate some of the Russian traditions - not that Nicky remembers (he has a hard time remembering yesserday - that's the way he says it), but we feel that it's important that we remind him of some of his past.  That said, Father Frost, or Дед Мороз (Ded Moroz), is the Russian, etc, version of our Santa.  However, he doesn't visit in secret like Santa, and he comes for the New Year instead. 

So, New Year's Day at the crack of dawn, Daddy returned from the fire station, and we had a nice, quiet morning opening presents and playing with Nicky's new toys.

Nicky played "Santa" and passed out all our gifts.  This one made a bunch of noise when he moved it, and was anxious to find out what was inside.

Here's Nicky playing with the noisy present (a dragon castle) after Daddy took all the annoying packaging off of it...

Kris and I decided we weren't going to do any big gifts for each other this year.  Along with random stocking stuffer-type gifts Kris got a pair of flops to wear around the house, a belt, socks and a puffy vest. 

Man was I surprised when I opened my last present and found this...

Yep, that's a Tiffany & Co box, and it contained a beautiful pair of earrings!  Dang it's good to be Queen! :)

Later that day, we were joined by Nana, Uncle Brent, Brenden and Emily for more fun.  Brenden had a double ear infection, so he wasn't feeling all that well.  Emily and Nicky on the other hand have really become bosom buddies!  They followed each other around and had a blast playing and goofing off.  They even started out sleeping together that night...

...but Emily felt lonely and wanted to stay with her Daddy and brother instead, to Nicky's disappointment.  Oh well, they have plenty of time for that. 

Happy (belated) New Year - we hope it's a blessed and prosperous year for you all!