Christmas Day. A fun but tiring day for a toddler and his parents. Eric opened his first gift Wednesday night -- the one from Grace that he'd been looking at all day and had to take home unopened. Christmas Eve we had egg nog french toast for breakfast and he opened a second gift, which ended up being a box of 96 crayons from Matthew. We played, made fruitcake, had lunch, and then Eric went down for an early-ish nap around 12:30. Up, snack, and church from 4-7 (two services, Greg ran slides for both and I did nursery/toddlers for second). Home, a quick dinner for the little one and to bed (late, around 8:30).

Christmas morning we had pumpkin pancakes with sugar sprinkles and Eric found it very difficult to wait -- he periodically chanted in a plaintive voice "My dandake! Eric eat dandake!" while pointing to his mouth. While waiting, I allowed him a couple tastes of the sugar decorations -- red and green sugar and tiny multicolored balls, which of course he wanted an endless supply of but only got a couple tastes of. When I finally put the pancakes on the table, it was "Yay food!". I have a boy. Who knew?

After breakfast we opened a few gifts, played with them a few minutes, then got dressed and opened the rest of the gifts (including ones for mommy and daddy -- a good lesson that presents aren't just for Eric). Thank you to everyone for all the gifts lavishly bestowed on Eric (and us). We'll be sorting through his toys and giving him the chance to pick some to give away. If he doesn't pick any (or enough), we'll do the culling ourselves. Some we'll keep, of course, for Kyle.

Eric and Greg went out and played in the snow for a few minutes and then we all had lunch (soup and bagels, something simple). Eric went down for his nap about 12:15 and slept for a solid 2.5 hours. Then it was time for more play, talking with the grandparents and uncles (via phone or video), and then dinner. Dinner was Honeybaked Ham, stuffing (from the honeybaked ham store), baby sweet potatoes (they cook faster), grilled zucchini, mini croissants, jellied relish, fresh relish, and salad (lettuce, baby tomatoes, olives, balsamic dressing).

Eric ate nearly everything I gave him, including half of a whole zucchini. He passed on the sweet potato and most of his lettuce (which I'm not sure he really considers food yet). He started with the stuffing and cranberry sauces (a kid after my own heart), then the olives, and asked for more jellied cranberry sauce (a kid after Greg's heart). I asked him to eat some zucchini first, so he "chained" most of the zucchini and some ham (shoveling the next bite into his mouth before the first was entirely consumed). Next helping of jellied cranberry sauce, "more peez!", a request from mommy to eat more ham, to which he responded by eating more zucchini and ham. This repeated a couple more times until he finally decided he was done, leaving a little jellied cranberry sauce, his sweet potato, and a little lettuce on his plate. I think he might have eaten more than I did!

Then more play, wherein he dumped all his crayons out, threw them on the floor, and refused to pick them up. After a time out and some direction from mommy (pick up your crayons and put them on the table. pick up the blue crayon. pick up the red crayon. pick up the ... etc), I collapsed on the sofa and fell asleep while Greg played with Eric a little while longer and then took him to bed at 7p (again, early). I think he could have gone to bed at 6p, it was a tiring day.

Videos at 11.