Our Christmas festivities began on Sunday when we hosted a gathering which Kyle dubbed a "Christmas Panini Party". We assembled my parents, Kyle's parents & grandparents, Phillip & Cami, Christina & Chad, and Aunt Mary & Uncle Jim who were visiting from Dallas. We all made panini grilled sandwiches and visited in the afternoon. By far the most entertaining part of the afternoon was the practical joke Kyle and his siblings played on their dad, John. I will digress here to give some background....what prompted the joke was a conversation around Thanksgiving regarding best and worst Christmas gifts and John declared he had never received a bad Christmas gift. Well, Kyle is always one to challenge such absolute statements and Kyle rallied the kids to come up with something REAL bad to give their dad this year. Christina was able to wrangle up a spare puppy from her boss at work for us to borrow and we had our prop. Only the kids knew this was a joke. So remember, everyone else at the Panini Party had no idea we were kidding. So let's rejoin the Panini Party.....
With everyone gathered in our living room, Kyle made an announcement about how all the kids wanted to give John and Debbie a special present for their house in Carmel. In walks Christina carrying an adorable long-haired Dachsund puppy and hands it to Debbie. There is a look of fear and confusion on Debbie's face as she cautiously strokes the puppy trying to receive the gift as graciously as possible. John is sitting next to her on the couch and is absolutely silent. No reaction. It gets worse as he continues to hold a laser death stare towards the TV, completely ignoring the puppy's existence along with anyone else in the room. Fearful of John's horrible reaction, Cami and I quickly banish ourselves to the kitchen and busy ourselves spreading out the elements for the meal and attempt to distance ourselves from this joke-gone-bad with mumblings that we had nothing to do with this because we're merely the "in-laws". Aunt Mary had a look on her face that can only be described as
contempt-afusion-ilderment (contempt mixed with confusion mixed with bewilderment). I thought if John didn't start lining us up for a beating, Aunt Mary just might.
Well, the joke was supposed to go on until the end of the day when Christina would return the puppy however the severity of John's reaction prompted us to abort the joke. Between the incredibly quiet uneasiness in the room (no one knew whether to congratulate or condemn) and Cami's pleading for us to cease and desist before all our Christmas presents were revoked, Kyle finally declared "mom and dad, this is a joke. You're not getting a dog for Christmas" to which John replied stoically, "I knew I wasn't getting a dog for Christmas". Sunday moved along quite nicely AFTER everyone was in on the joke....
Monday we celebrated Christmas Eve festivities at our house with about 15 members of Kyle's family and enjoyed Pappasitos. Yum! We also visited with Erin and Justin via Internet on the webcam hooked up to our TV and we enjoyed watching Luke, Alex, Isaac, & Jack open their presents from Santa in real time. Technology is so amazing.
Tuesday we headed to my parents' to celebrate Christmas Day with my cousins and aunt and uncle.
The clear winner of the gift windfall is John. From Mamaw and Grandpa B. he received a little green motorcycle, his very own Giggle-Bytes laptop (since he luuuuvs to slam on Daddy's laptop), and a Chevron car to add to his collection. He also received his very own ticket for a Bethancourt family cruise in July! Phillip and Cami got him a Book of Prayers, Chad and Christina got him some cute clothes, Granny and Papaw got him a neat-O baseball glove. Mimi and Grandpa G. got him an outdoor swing, a musical play table, lots of random new toys and a huge rubber duck to take baths in. My cousins got him more cute clothes...the little man is SET!
Today I hit the stores at 7 AM to scavenge the after Christmas sales. Since this is our first Christmas in a real house I had minimal Christmas decorations this year with the intent of getting lots of things on sale afterward. Target was THE place to be at 7 AM. I was battling many other women with loaded carts in order to get the best deals. I scored some lit wreaths and cute Christmas topiaries for my front porch, several boxes of ornaments, and lots of wrapping paper, bags, and labels.
Sorry for the long post...like I said, we've been busy but as you can tell we enjoyed getting to spend time with our family this past week. It's been loads of fun!! Merry Christmas!
I will post pictures soon.....
1 comment:
It sounds like a wonderful Christmas! Now I am just ready for the pics :) love ya, Kara
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