Well, we are rounding out the Christmas suite with this post, again pretty late.

Imagine the scene.  Isaac had a Christmas blast on the 24th with his cousins and the Naps in Rhode Island.  Then he had a Christmas hit with us on the 25th.  Then he had a third Christmas on the 26th, this time with Nanna and P-Pa.  At this rate, the kid is going to think we are Jewish and actually celebrating Hanukkah.

Anyway, the present fueled excitement was one thing, but getting to see Nanna and P-Pa for an entire week was something else.  As he is getting older he is realizing that some visits are long and some are short and he knew this was a long one, so he was pumped.

Nanna and P-Pa arrived in the afternoon and the morning was spent cleaning, playing and trying to prevent Isaac from bouncing off the walls.  I will take a moment and pause here to say that even though I am 36 years old I am also quite excited to see my parents, even if they basically hand their coats to me as they walk in the door and go run after their grandson.  I actually like that too.  Seeing them make him happy and seeing him make them happy is just too awesome.  And eventually they say hello to me, like an hour after Isaac has fallen asleep ;)

Well the Christmas gifts were amazing.  Nanna and P-Pa showed amazing restraint, especially considering they are grandparents that only see their grandson once every two months or so.  One present that I was truly surprised to see how much Isaac liked it was the Magnadoodle.



Nanna wanted to buy him one a long time ago, but I was trying to be the Dad and cut down on toys.  But the Magnadoodle is just an awesome teaching tool and a great toy.  It is a mainstay of car trips, allowing him to draw space battles until his heart's content.  This is a mea culpa here--Nanna was write and right.

After the Magnadoodle Isaac got a toy firetruck.  I pointed P-Pa in the direction of the Bruder website and told him to get what he would have wanted as a kid.  The end result was a firetruck that was seemingly on a 1:4 scale.  It had a real rubber hose, real rubber tires, a ladder and bucket that extended over Isaac's head, as well as sirens and lights.  This thing is positively massive and awesome.  And Isaac loved it.  After the visit it has been a visitor at bath time, getting pumped up with water and dousing me.

Isaac needed, relative term here, some new good guys and we thought Marvel superheroes would work well with his DC guys.  Here he is unwrapping a collection of new action figures:


My favorite part is just how genuinely grateful he is.  He runs over and thanks them before even opening the gift.  He is such a good kid. 

Nanna and P-Pa also got all three of us a book called the Night Tree.  It is a beautiful story about decorating a tree outside with food for the animals to eat during winter.  I am working on a post about this, the before and after, but the park where the tree is has been blocked off for the past three weeks due to heavy snow and low city budgets.

The visit was great and Christmas, Part III was awesome.  We really enjoyed having Nanna and P-Pa share Christmas and Isaac with us.  Each year I can't imagine how it could get better, but every year it does.  

Well, this is very late, but better late than never.

It has happened to work out the past few years that Christmas Day is a holiday that is just us.  It is nice to have a little break in the hectic holiday schedule and the fact that it happens on Christmas Day is nice.  24 hours is just enough to catch our breath before the onrush of Nanna and P-Pa visiting at the holidays.

This is the shot just after Santa left.



Dad was fortunate to catch this picture as he heard something downstairs in the middle of the night and happen to have his camera set up.  I ran downstairs just as soot was falling from the chimney and snapped this photo.  Then I went back upstairs and waited.  Around 2:30 AM I woke up to be disappointed that it was only 2:30.  Then around 6:00 AM I woke up again.  This time, so did I-man.

Here is the big reveal:


We ran downstairs and then got our annual picture for Mom:



As you can see Isaac was not having any of this sitting still baloney, and it was soon present time.

There was a moment of panic on Christmas morning though as Isaac opened one present after another without seeing the two he asked for from Santa.  He had asked for a stuff animal snow leopard and a stuffed animal anaconda and as a mountain of wrapping paper built up, he fretted.  Perhaps he wasn't a good boy he asked us.  Perhaps Santa had forgotten.  We urged him on and then he got this:



Panic vanished and I-man was enjoying the holiday spirit.

Once the presents were over we busted out a pillow mosh pit and started a fire.  Then Isaac asked for a movie and we got a movie (Epic, if you want to know, which was pretty good) and vegged out for an entire day, surrounded on all sides by mountains of presents.  All in all it was a great day, a wonderful experience to see Isaac get the things he had wanted for so long (hey, three months is a long time if you are only 36 months old, its 1/12 his life).   And it was an excellent way to prepare for Nanna and P-Pa's very highly anticipated arrival.  

This morning Isaac came into the bathroom when I was showering and we had this conversation:

Isaac: Daddy are there kids that don't have stuffed animals?
Me: Sure, buddy.
Isaac: Dad, they have none at all?
Me: Yeah, Isaac.  We are pretty lucky.  We have a lot of nice things and a good life.
Isaac: Well, what if I gave those kids some of my stuffed animals?
Me: That would be very nice of you Isaac.
Isaac: I would give them even to kids I don't know.
Me:  That is especially nice of you.
Isaac: I would tell them "Here you go.  Now you have a stuffed animal."  Then I would ask them there name so I would know their name.
Me:  Isaac, I am so proud of you.  You are a good hearted boy.
Isaac: I just don't want those kids not to have stuffed animals.
Me: I know I-man.  That's one of the reasons why I love you so much.

Pretty amazing for a 3 1/2 year old, right?  I couldn't be more proud of him.