December 24, 2015: Christmas Eve in Texas

Dad has been playing the hidden object, or more appropriately as it appears to now be known a “hidden object and puzzle adventure” or HOPA, game based on the Castle television show.

Epic Christmas
Let Epic Christmas 2015 Begin

I spent the morning alone trying to get work done out at the condo in Galveston.  It was a shorter day, I was only really out there during the morning and by early afternoon I packed up and drove up to League City where we will be spending the holiday.  I am staying there tonight to make things easier to deal with.  I had not been planning on bringing the new video game system but Dominica said that I should bring it so I packed that up at the last minute, as well.

This evening we went over to the Toccos’ for dinner.  The kids were rambunctious, of course.  Very excited about tomorrow.

After dinner it was back to the house and time for the pajama elf to dole out the new pajamas for the night.  Luciana and Liesl got very lucky that their pajamas just happen to come with matching pajamas that perfectly fit their new build-a-bears.  They were so excited and thought that that was the coolest thing.  Little did they know that it was a coincidence.  Sadly, Clara’s pajamas did not come with a matching smaller pajamas for her build-a-bear.  No one even thought about this as none of it was planned nor were the bears expected, it was just how the pajamas came.  But Clara felt like she was missing out and was very sad, understandable.

Dominica and I ran to Walgreens and hunted around in the last minutes before they closed and Dominica managed to find a holiday dog costume of a Santa outfit that looked like it would fit Clara’s build-a-bear.  We brought it home, hid it in all of the wrapping, called Clara out and she was thoroughly convinced that the pajamas had just been overlooked in her over-zealousness to open her Christmas pajamas and was as happy as a clam.

The laying out of the presents went until well after midnight.  It was, as always, very exhausting.

Christmas Presents
Epic Christmas Layout

We were all very tired when we finally got off to sleep around one in the morning.  Dominica and I slept in Garrett and Clara’s room while the kids all piled into Madeline and Emily’s rooms so that they would be isolated.