Christmas Eve

Aidan has entirely too many toys. We have tried to go through them and donate some of them, but I think Andy and I are just as bad as Aidan when it comes to not being able to actually get rid of any. There are things he hasn't played with in months, but we think, he might decide to one day. :) We really have no where else to store toys! So, we decided to let an outdoor toy be the main focus of Aidan's gifts this year. We got him a swingset. The question then became how to put it together and not let him see it until Christmas. Impossible! Andy started building it on the 23rd and we just said once he saw it, he saw it and he would know what his big gift was. It was dark when Aidan and I got home on the 23rd, so we made it through the first day. On the 24th we were off, so I knew Aidan would see it as soon as he got up. It actually took him a couple hours to notice. There were times I thought he looked right at it, but didn't say a word. Finally, he saw it, he pulled a kitchen chair over to the window, stood in it, and said "What's that?" We played dumb at first, but he was very persistent, and too smart for his own good. :) He was very happy when we told him. Rick came over to help finish it, and Aidan got to go out and help. I think that probably made it even more special to him. We didn't actually finish it completely until the following week, but that gave Aidan tons of time to help Dada build it.

Our Christmas Eve tradition has always been to have supper at mama's and open gifts with them. This was the first year Aidan was really into the whole "present" thing and was really excited about getting new things. As usual though, once he got one thing he liked, he pretty much didn't care about opening anything else! And of course, he wanted to open every toy and play with it immediately. Not sure if that helps with transporting everything back home, or complicates it because you have a million pieces! He had a good time! He really enjoyed his last gift from Pop Pop........a harmonica!!!!!!!!!!!!! I tried everyway I could to convince mama that it really needed to stay at her house, so Aidan and Pop Pop could play together in the evenings before we picked him up. Didn't work. :)

With so many people and so many things going on, I really didn't get many pics.