Jill's Journal: Christmas morning dawned with a visit from Santa, who somehow found us even on our travels and brought Victoria the bike she’d been dreaming of!
We took a break from all the gifts for a wonderful Christmas breakfast, only one of the amazing meals Beppy loves to stuff her family with. The woman singlehandedly packed five pounds on each of us over the Christmas weekend. Funny, but I don’t remember any of us putting up much resistance…
And speaking of Beppy, here she is with her little granddaughters!
The girls’ Aunt Kristi is well known for her amazing powers of figuring out every gift under the tree while it’s still wrapped. (That “power” has nothing to do with the fact that she has “secretly” unwrapped and carefully rewrapped each present ahead of time for her entire life, usually overnight while our parents slept.) To make sure there was at least one present she couldn’t figure out this year, Rob wrapped one very special gift in a foolproof way. Just in case she’s looking for revenge, I want her to know I had nothing to do with it. :)
Madelyn and her two favorite Uncle Adams!
Kristi with a special horse art project for the girls. She clearly knows the way to their hearts. 
Me and Beppy – a tribute to our weeks of afternoon glasses of wine together. “What time is it?”
“Oh-wine-thirty!”
I never imagined I’d be drinking with my mother, especially in the middle of the day (!), but gosh, we’ve had fun. Living next door to my parents this past month has been a wonderful, wonderful gift. I'm trying to talk them into buying an RV of their own and caravanning with us. Hint, hint. :)
4 comments:
Oh, the shot of you & your mom...I never imagined you'd see the day either! Time changes things, doesn't it?! That's certainly never going to happen with me & my mom...maybe I'll have to drink with you & yours some afternoon. :)
-Diana
Love the present for Kristi pic. I too suffered from the inability to wait until christmas day for presents.
At first, I learned to just lift around the edges to see what was underneath. Then when my Mom caught on to that she started double wrapping my presents which led to the secretly unwrapping and re-wrapping stage.
It became a contest between my Mom and I to see who would win the war of guesses come Christmas morning. Eventually she started keeping them hidden until Christmas so I had no chance at peeking.
Unfortunately for her, they pretty much followed my "wish list" when shopping with a few predictable exceptions so I got really good at picking up the packages and with a shake or two being very accurate at guessing what was inside. VERY accurate. So much so that one year she went out of her way to slip a few past my by a) wrapping pieces of the same gift (it was an electronic keyboard that came in several boxes for later assembly) in separate packages, b) wrapping all accessories in oversized boxes (e.g. she wrapped batteries, camera lens, camera case, etc.). I had quite a haul that year so there were a LOT of boxes. I guessed them ALL right up to the very last package. She was absolutely fuming as she grabbed the very last package and handed it to me. I told her that it was a leather-bound copy of Frank Miller's 'The Dark Knight.' "Ah ha!" She shouted. "You're wrong because I didn't buy that for you and neither did your Dad, and I certainly would remember wrapping that."
You should have seen the look on her face when I opened opened the package. Priceless!!
Moral of the story, buy your own present, use her paper and switch a name tag from another present filled out in her own handwriting to win the guessing war.
Years later, after Amy and I became engaged, she would try again to outsmart me. Amy went with me to my parents house to open presents. Mom handed me a package and told me to guess. A quick shake and I told her it was an espresso maker. I even got the brand right. (Luckily, I had looked at that same model as a potential gift for Amy.) She thought for sure since I cannot stand coffee I'd never guess that one. Once again, that look was priceless!
We've since stopped and I claim complete and utter victory on our little war of wills.
Gary, oh my goodness!!! Remind me NEVER to challenge you to any battle of wills. Your fierce and relentless competitiveness stuns me (and I come from a long line of fierce and relentless competitors)!!
LOL, I'd never turn against you guys. It's the principal of the thing. Child V. Parent.
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