Christmas Day 2013 (and a little of the Eve)

Merry Christmas! It's now approaching mid-afternoon here in Ottawa. Marilu is in the kitchen, working on a beef tenderloin, Lucas is doing his best to open up every single toy or game he received, and I'm here to update you with the goings-on of the Family Deal.

Before we get to Christmas morning, let's take a look at a couple of scenes from last night. I should note that Tracey took WAY more pictures than I did so I'll just link to her Flickr page whenever she posts the rest of hers so you can get a better idea of the entire night.

Each Christmas Eve, there's a gift exchange for the kids. Here's Lucas getting one of his gifts. You can never go wrong with Lego or Star Wars. He also got some Rainbow Loom elastics. More on that later.

One of the coolest traditions that has sprung from the Christmas Eve visits is that we've been taking pictures of Lucas, Logan, and Thierry each year, starting when all 3 were still in their Mom's bellies. Below is this year's version. It occurs to me now that chronicling the pictures from each year would make for a good post. Look for that in the next week.

Now, on to the festivities. Lucas was nice enough to fall asleep almost immediately when we got home on Christmas Eve, and then he waited until almost 8 AM to wake me up. Before the paper carnage began, I got this picture of the present haul.

You can never go wrong with Lego. Marilu and I both really like building Lego sets so the hardest part is having the patience to wait for him to do it and not just grab it and do it on our own. :)

Mini sticks hockey set. One of three hockey-related items he received. You'll see the really big one toward the end of this post.

This is one of my personal favorites: a Hess truck from Dave and Judy. Each year, Hess has a different version of their truck carrying different vehicles. In past years, there have been race cars, jets, and helicopters. This year it was a tractor. The reason I really like these is that they are a throwback to the Tonka trucks I grew up with. We still have all the prior versions he's received and look forward to seeing new ones each year.

More Legos from his Godfather.

I was proud of just how happy he was with this microscope from Aunt Tanya (aka the Godmother). Here's hoping he keeps his interest in science.

Even more Legos! Let the building commence!

This was probably the present that got Lucas the most excited. Rainbow Loom is all the rage this year with kids his age. In a nutshell, you use the "loom," a plastic device, to create bracelets and necklaces out of colored elastics. The kids trade them at school or give them to their friends. I don't necessarily get it, but then again, I'm far removed from age 6. Along with the extra bags of colored elastics he received, Marilu estimated we now have 5400 elastics in our house. That's the potential for a mess on a nuclear level.

Although he's never played the videogame these figures are based on, Lucas really likes Halo.

Our future Hugh Hefner tries on his very first robe.

You can't get much more old school than Matchbox cars. Thanks go to Uncle Jared for these.

Here's the hockey net I mentioned earlier (sans net, which has since been installed). Santa may have misjudged the size of net required for Lucas's age since this is an NHL regulation size net at 4 feet high by 6 feet wide. Odds are, if Lucas stays interested in hockey, he'll still have this when he moves out. In the meantime, it'll double as a soccer net or baseball backstop (thanks to my dad for the ideas).

Finally, here's the aftermath of Christmas Morning 2013. Like I said on Facebook earlier, it pays to be an only child (and only grandchild on my side). Lucas got more stuff than some charities.

Hope the rest of your Christmas is very merry!