Wagner Christmas in AL--Part 2

Since Marcus had to work Wednesday and Thursday while everyone was here, we decided to do our Christmas on Friday morning. Everyone was up by 9:00, so after breakfast, we all gathered in the living room for present time. The kids opened their gifts with gusto. Ethan took his time...playing with each toy after he opened it. Caleb was more eager to get everything unwrapped and then take each item out of the packages. Since we just did presents for the kids on this side of the family, as well, present time was much shorter than in previous years. And the traditional stocking hunt which usually precedes opening presents was done the next morning instead. This year, Mimi prepared two separate stocking hunts: one for Chase & Caleb and one for Kylie and Ethan. Chase and Caleb did pretty good with theirs, though Kylie preferred following the big boys to searching for her own clues, and Ethan was not quite old enough to stay focused on such a long task. Regardless, all the kids were caught up in the excitement of running around the house and looking for clues.

This was sort of the Christmas of Mike & Gigi renovating our entertainment world. They recently got a new TV, so they dragged the huge TV they had replaced all the way from Florida to give to us. They also gave me a Roku for my birthday, which is a super-cool little box that takes Netflix videos and transfers them from the computer to the TV. And to top it all off, Mike (and Al and Josh), helped Marcus go buy this beautiful entertainment armoir that I found on Craig's list (since we didn't have anywhere to put the new TV). Now our living room is so much more attractive! Our previous entertainment center was purchased for $20 from Craig's list, and we had to slide wood slivers under the right side to keep it standing up. This entertainment armoir the guys brought home for me was probably purchased originally for more than $1,000; it is still in perfect condition and it only cost us $120.

Everyone (except Wendi) headed out of town around 1:00 Saturday afternoon. That night, Wendi babysat for us so Marcus and I could go out and celebrate my 30th birthday with our best friends.