The Christmas Paintings

We opened our presents at midnight on Christmas, because we were just arriving home from visiting my sister. I'll spare you pictures of the gifts, except for these: paintings Lisa had made for each of the kids. She snuck out to Splash Studio four times between Halloween and Christmas (once with Trudy), wanting to create something special for each of their rooms.

Daddy's Home 2 and a Wonder Woman episode

We watched the Wonder Woman ('70's) episode "Amazon Hot Wax" with Rick Springfield and Judge Reinhold!

-and-

Daddy's Home 2 -  Obviously this isn't Oscar material, but what it is is warm, and honest, and funny - basically, everything Bad Moms was not.

Boxing Day 2015 - The Melting Pot

Every year we celebrate Boxing Day, establishing it as the day this family will celebrate together long after their own individual families carve up Christmas proper. This year however, a long planned trip to the Mall of America was nixed by my surgery. So instead, we rolled out to The Melting Pot for lunch. The kids were great, everyone had fun, and aside from the hip acting up a couple times, there wasn't a bad moment in the bunch. Thanks #TeamSlap! I love you all!

Boxing Day 2015 PT 2 - Shopping

After lunch we took some of the money planned for the trip and divided it up among the kids, letting them shop at Brookfield Square. Call it their Christmas bonus. Yes, I was self-conscious about being in a wheelchair and asked to be left behind while they shopped. Yes, I'm just immature enough to resent it when they did *what I asked* and left me sitting alone in the mall. Yes, I was enough of a martyr to FB about it. Yes, Lisa then called me out on it and I paid a terrible, terrible price.  But fear not, the day continued - just not at the mall. LOL

So, after the mall debacle Lisa drove us to Target, where I was able to use a scooter and shop with the kids. I always said I'd die before I rode in one of those things, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Junie got a MLP doll, some jewelry, and a Robolox card; LuLu bought her manicure set; Smiley bought some Pokemon cards but saved most of his cash, and YaYa bought an outfit.

Manicure Day!

LuLu is giving Yaya a manicure with the set OJ bought today for Boxing Day.

Boxing Day 2015 pt 1 of 3

A year ago, to celebrate Boxing Day, we went ice skating, and later I walked the youngest two more than a mile to the store. This morning I'm changing the diaper sized dressing on my hip and laying strapped into a stretching machine. #bitter

A Visit with Louise

Lisa and I paid a visit to Louise  this Christmas Day. It was great to see her! Plus a big thank you to Sherry, a nurses aid, who saw me struggling down the hall on crutches and found me a wheelchair to use. Give me some more gray hair and I could have passed for a resident! lol

The Tree is Down

As I write this, Lisa is taking down our Christmas tree. Despite its beauty - and personally, I think it was a stunner - it must have sat on the lot awhile before we bought it. It's so dry and brittle that when Lisa blew on it as a joke it lost so many needles it sounded like a rain storm in the living room. #ItsGottaGo

Lisa, dumping dustpan after dustpan of needles. "I've never had a tree do this. This is cartoon bulls--t."

LuLu

LuLu's new picture. Lisa and I breed well together.

Mindy and Isaiah Visit

I overdid it with the hip yesterday, even though all I really did was sit. So Lisa let me sleep in, waking me as Mindy and Isaiah were winding up their visit! (Sorry I looked like poop. I felt like it too)

Christmas Eve at my Sister's

Late on Christmas Eve #TeamSlap stopped by Christopher and my sister Chrissy to exchange gifts. Smiley especially loved his Gravity Falls hat!