Christmas Day Begins At Midnight

Where do I begin with all the things that happened at Christmas. For our family the tradition of opening up Christmas presents starts as midnight. I can't really tell you why it's that way but it has always been like that. Our friends and family gather together on Christmas Eve and after a nice dinner all the children gather around and we each choose one present to open up first. This year was our first year that we did it as a married couple and it was a great time had by all. The guys showed up...as usual...fashionable late. Scott actually hosted his first Christmas for his mom and so they had dinner together. He and Benny showed up to the house around 9 PM and we were all finally together. Carlos and Elsa had been at her parents house and they finally arrived at 1030.

When midnight rolled around Little Carlos was amped up and ready to go!!!! He was like a kid at a candy store...then again for him Christmas is like having a huge store come to his house...so needless to say he was ready to tear into the presents that were under the tree. I began to pass out the gifts, giving everybody their first one.

Big Carlos was the first one to tear into his gift, and with a look of shock found that his girlfriend had given him an XBox 360!!!! Elsa went next and she got some make up that she had been wanting from Mac. Then it was the guys' turn. Ben tore into his present like a kid getting a dollar for the first time. Fast and quick and with a look of surprise when he saw that Hady and I had given him a sweater and a shirt for him to wear. Not that we didn't get them more, but they had actually given us our gifts a bit early and we decided to let them have one gift early as well. I had gotten Benny a headset for his XBox 360 and had gotten Scott the video game called Forza Motorsports 2. It's what they wanted and I was sure I couldn't fail with those gifts. Scott opened his second gift for the season, but his first gift of the night. He too got a sweater and a shirt but in true "Scott style" decided to open it up like El Guapo from the Three Amigos and yell "EET IS A SWEEATER!!!!"



Then the gifts that I had been waiting for the entire night to be opened came up. Hady didn't ask me for much, and with everything going on the last couple months as far as work and money went I figured if I couldn't get her much I would at least get her the gifts that she really wanted. It was really two gifts that I wanted to see opened at once. The one that I had gotten for Hady and one that I had gotten for Christina. Both of them wrapped in identical little boxes and with the same wrapping paper. Hady shook the box a bit to try and guess what it was since it couldn't have weighed more than a pound but was too big to be a jewelry box. She finally tore into it and her jaw dropped!!! She had been fooled for a bit since the To/From tag said that the gift was from Jessie. We don't have a Jessie in our family...just so you know. When she got to the contents of the box her eyes widened and her mouth opened!!! It was an apron from the Jessie Steele collection that she wanted, and to top it off I had gotten Christina the exact same one in a little kids size. I won't go into detail as far as how I found the freaking thing, but my best friend and I now know where there are certain stores where there shouldn't be.

Little Carlos was finally up and he actually got to open two gifts at once. Due to lack of communication between Carlos and us, Los got two identical gifts which turned out to be a great thing for him. He tore into the wrapping paper and discovered that he got, not one, but two NERF Long Range Shot Blasters. They are basically huge NERF guns but it was good he was gonna have two since he and I were gonna be shooting at each other. He immediately tried to get the guns out of their boxes and start a NERF fight. We had to restrain him a bit since he still had more presents to go through!!!

We all kept alternating turns for the remainder of the night until all the presents were gone and once again our tree was bare underneath. In a total tally this is how the presents ended up

Hady

Jessie Steele Apron - From Christian
Aldo Leather Shoes - Christian
Victoria's Secret PJ's - Elsa & Carlos
Pearl Ring - Mom

Los

NERF Guns x2 - Hady and Carlos
Nintendo DS Black - Hady
Etnies Shoes - Scott
Havoc Heli Laser Battles - Christian
Pokemon Diamond for DS - Elsa

Christina

Crayola Easel - Hady
Jessie Steele Apron - Christian
Learn and Grow Kitchen - Hady
Dora the Explorer Tent - Elsa
Wood Puzzle - Hady
Dora The Explorer Trike - Carlos

Scott

Dress Sweater - Hady and Christian
Polo Shirt - Hady
Forza Motorsports 2 XBox 360 - Christian

Benny

Dress sweater - Hady and Christian
Dress Shirt - Hady
XBox 360 Headset - Christian

Carlos

XBox 360 Bundles Pack - Elsa
Assassin's Creed - Scott
1 yr XBox live - Hady
Reserve copy of GTA4 - Christian
Halo 3 Special Edition - Elsa

Elsa

MAC makeup - Hady
Aldo Gift Card - Scott
MAC brushes - Carlos
Snow Jacket - Hady

Christian

Winbreakers - Hady
Jeans - Hady
Socks - Hady
Sweater - Carlos
Assassin's Creed - Elsa
Boxers - Dolores HAHAHAHA the tradition continues!!!

We also got two gifts as a family. Benny got us Rock Band and Scott got us the camera we used to take all of our pictures. We stayed up until about 4 AM and finally went to bed so that we could get up in the morning for Christmas dinner. It was a great Christmas, and everyone got presents they wanted and even some that were very surprising, but I'll let Hady talk about that big one we got.