Uncle Michael Post: Christmas Day Eve

On Christmas Day, we went to Cousin Karen's for the traditional Christmas day dinner/family party. Emmy liked going outside. Here Mommy and Emmy are sitting out front.


Later, when we got home, Emmy played with the blocks he had gotten




Greeley colored in mommy's bed.




Atlee couldn't keep up the pace. She crashed on the couch.


On the late local news, Gree got some exciting news.




Emmy, of course, was the last to fall sleep. But before then, he found a box to play with.



Then, at last, everyone was asleep.

Uncle Michael Post: Christmas Day 2011

Greeley bought Mommy a hat for Christmas. Emmy looks great in it.

He's a munchkin and a wizard!

Shea got the microscope he had been wanting. Then he proceeded to trip over the AC wire and knock it over. Here he might be checking out the slide collection he got.

It's a new Strawberry Shortcake movie!!
(Also: check out the cool tea set in the foreground!)

Atlee asked for socks. Atlee got socks.

Emmy got a safari truck. Later, Wilson "got" a giraffe.
(He was just answering to his inner wild animal.)

Shea got...uh...triops! (Forgot for a second.) What are triops? "They're basically sea monkeys but he asked for them," said Mommy. What happened to the triops? As Shea would say: "Welllllll...." (He boiled them, essentially.)

A Hello Kitty coloring book!

The real presents, though, require a video.



Witness the excitement!!





Then, there was the biggest reveal.



This is why Greeley was excited.



More gifts:

Emmy got his own kitchen playset, so he can stop stealing Mommy's spatulas!

This is a homemade sign Atlee got from Mommy promising a new fish.
Mommy drew the fish herself!

No, this is not Atlee pretending to beg by the side of the road.
This is the written side of the fish promise.

This was one of the presents I wish I had video from.
When she opened it, Greeley was very excited about her Barbies.

Emmy got a truck with some cars! He really liked it!
Which was good, because...

Trucks Part 1:




Trucks, Part 2

Uncle Michael Post: Christmas Eve 2011

This is Atlee and Daddy playing Mad Libs.

For Christmas Eve, we were invited to brother Gene's for dinner. It was decided that Mommy and Emmy would stay home and the rest of us would head down.

When I got out of the shower I found the girls were dressed in finery befitting the season. At one point, Atlee jumped down to Greeley's feet and said "Ooo; I like your shoes." Greeley shrugged and said "It's easy when you're a princess."

Here's the princess now! She looked fabulous and when she randomly struck this pose at the top of the stairs so I asked her to recreate it so I could take a picture.

Here she is ready to head out; purse with pull up, stuffed reindeer and - as always - the leopard print jacket. Because if the Riordan girls are nothing else, they are WILD.

Since I took a picture of Gree, I tried to get the other two as well but I wasn't very successful.

At was decked out in purple.

Down in Maryland, Aunt Mary taught Atlee how to play Othello. What is Greeley doing? Looking for a piece that fell.

I think Atlee lost but it was probably because she was confused by the fact that Aunt Mary kept speaking to her in German.

Later, Uncle John played Shea.

Greeley has been feeling VERY affectionate lately. In the past week, she's probably told her mother "I love you" between 50 and 80 times. It would get old but she's just so cute.

Greeley: "Atlee! Do you want to go sit and look at the tree??"
Greeley really liked Uncle Gene's tree.

When we got home, it was back to business as usual. :)

Shea always wanted to do this.

I'm sorry you have to turn your head sideways.

Emmy's Horoscope, December 6

Courtesy of my DirecTV (this is Uncle Michael):

"You see an opportunity, and yet this is no easy feat. You won't be able to simply 'let it happen' on this one. If you want it to happen, you'll have to make it happen."

The Essence of Childhood

Does anyone not remember doing something like this?

Scorpio

One of the ways that Mommy likes to amuse herself is by reading Emerson's horoscope and seeing it in light of his personality and...er..."lifestyle."

This is Uncle Michael. It turns out DirecTV has a horoscope feature, so I looked up today's and this is what is says for Scorpio:

"For you, it's not enough to merely show up and do what you're supposed to do. You will dedicate yourself to taking things to the next level. You'll inspire others to do the same."

You see? In this case, one can only shudder while worrying what exactly it means that Emmy would "inspire others to do the same."

Wreathing

Just so you don't forget there are other people in this family, let's show a project Daddy and Atlee worked on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (after getting the tree).

Dammit! Does this kid become the focus of everything?? *

Wait..... It looks like we might be getting back to Atlee and Daddy...

Yes...

And we close out full circle. (Disclosure: I don't think any wreaths got done during this session. I came across a half-finished one on the porch later. - Uncle Michael)

*Greeley probably wonders this same thing.

In case you were worried...

*

The tree is up and decorated.

* pay no attention to the man in the box

Vampire Monkey!

In case you haven't had a chance to witness this phenomenon first hand.

A Little Bit of Emmy

"Hello, and welcome to Babies of the Rich and Famous. I'm your host, DESTRUCTOR!"

"My PRECIOUS! I dropped it down the drain!!!"

"PAPARAZZI!! NOOOOOOO!!"

The Secret Service dogs stay close to the official family vehicle.

Tell me this is not a picture of imminent destruction. Luckily, I was right there. (Uncle Michael)

We were going around the block when Emmy stopped for an important errand.

He had to pick up some rocks so he could put them in his big wheel.

"Mo wide!" he kept saying. I thought he would be a bit chilly, with no clothes on (*I* could feel the chill); but no. "Mo wide!"