A Very Somber Christmas To You, To You...

Christmas this year wasn't quite what I expected. I had anticipated paper being torn off gifts with wild abandon, giddy squeals and reasonably hyped up toddlers running from present to present trying to play with everything all at once. 

Basically, I expected pandemonium everyone.

You might recall what happened the last time I was counting down the days to pandemonium, so I really should not have been surprised – but still, I was.

Suffice it to say, there was absolutely zero pandemonium, wild abandon OR giddy squeals in our home this Christmas. Well, at least not when I was expecting it.

All of that came later in bits and pieces, long after the camera had been put away (in true Michigan J. Frog style).

Of course.

And so, without further ado, the OP stoically presents our very somber Christmas... 

The "before" photo:

You know, because I thought I would need it for posterity. 

And now, the "after" photo:

Turns out I didn't really need the "before" photo. 

Nate was completely disinterested in the stockings, but we finally convinced a reluctant Seth to play along:

'Dis better be good.

Somewhat. 

Oh. A dinosaur.

In the end, Seth ended up passing most of the stocking stuffers to Nate:

Oh. A car.

 I got a little hopeful when Nate latched onto the maracas, but it turned out to be a fleeting thing:

Because gift tags are way more interesting: 

'Dis best present I see all day right here, everyone!

We were forced to bring out the big guns at this point. 

Like this awesome glockenspiel – also referred to as a xylophone where we bought it – but the box says glockenspiel (and really that sounds way more rad): 

Not "rad" enough as it turned out though. Everyone got the hint after Seth closed the cover for the third (and final) time.

We quietly moved on to the book portion of the program: 

You wouldn't know it, but the books actually were a hit.

So was storytime with Daddy: 

Just look at those excited faces everyone.

And even more excited faces: 

I has no idea what going on here, everyone.

'Dis over yet?

Next year, I'm ordering these for our Christmas photos and I'm only halfway kidding.

Merry (somber) Christmas everyone!

– L.

PS. Looking through the multitude of pics I took that day, I did come across one that appears to potentially have a bit of wild abandon to it, but trust me when I say it was the only one. Here it is for posterity:

– I totally faking it.
– Me too. Wheee!