sevigny stories: ...And so it begins! Christmas 2012!

Tonight starts the annual Christmas celebration and our first stop this year is Grandma and Grandpa's. We ordered our usual of Chinese take-out and had a yummy meal before the unwrapping frenzy started. Of course, Grandma and Grandpa spoil all three of us so we were prepared and brought a laundry basket with us to help take all of the goodies home. But before we filled up the basket with our new presents, we used it as a holding area for all of the pretty bows and decorations Grandma used on the presents. (She likes to fancy-up all of the presents - you'll see in the picture below how pretty they look!) And well, AJ was all about the basket - every time one of us unwrapped a present, he would take the bow or decoration and then go drop it in the basket. It was adorable - I think he was more interested in the wrapping decorations than the presents themselves! Either way, all three of us made out like bandits with all of our new presents - thanks Grandma and Grandpa - we can't wait to do it all over again next year!

While we waited for Daddy to come back with dinner, Grandpa and AJ had some bonding time.

Christmas Family Photo with Grandma and Grandpa

What a good lookin' group!

'Are all of these presents for me?!'

Helping Daddy unwrap one of his presents

Thomas DVDs! YES!

Grandma's friend, Barbara was so thoughtful and bought AJ two presents. So sweet of her!

'Look Mom... Can I play with it now?!'

Trying to guess what the present is before opening it. It's a tradition and it's fun!

Michael and I decided to exchange our big presents tonight too. He was a little anxious to find out what his was since I had already told him that he needed to take a day off of work for it. I think the anticipation was killing him!! And his big present to me was the OtterBox case for my new iPad that Grandma and Grandpa had gotten me so it just made sense to exchange tonight. (I'm all for opening presents early - I'm like a little kid when it comes to Christmas time!)

He thought he could open it without trying to guess first....

WRONG! You HAVE to guess when we're at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Once he opened the box, he was even more confused! There were four little boxes all wrapped up and labeled one through four.

Box #1: A toy train. I had him so confused!

Box #2: An apple.

Box #3: A picture of a television. He still had no clue at this point.

And Box #4: A Fork. Still SUPER confused.

Finally, his present. Tickets to a live taping of 'The Chew' in NYC on January 8th where he would see two of his favorite chefs in action, Mario Batali and Michael Symon. (I did good!!)

The one present AJ really liked and played with after he opened all of his presents:

My new Yankee Candle. Silly AJ!

He kept taking the lid on and off and would smell it.

After we finally got him to give up the candle (believe me, it wasn't easy!), we started to get him ready for his pajamas and he took my iPhone to play with!