The Christmas Wrap-up

December 28th, 2011 by ariana

Well, the wrapping paper has been ripped off, the piles of new toys crammed into every corner and the steady stream of Chrismukkah gifts has finally ended!

It was pretty dark out still when we went downstairs to the tree to open presents on Christmas morning, so I used my speedlight and 50mm lens to snap a few of Jasper unwrapping his gifts.

First, one of his favorites was the big hot wheel set:

I think perhaps I was on Santa’s naughty list this year, because even though in my head hot wheel sets are silent, in reality, Jeff aka Santa picked one out with some sort of roating ring of fire tunnel thing that is incredibly loud and obnoxious, but Jasper doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, I think this little video expresses his love of this toy better than any picture could:

(Since I wrote my last post mentioning the 8mm app to create vintage looking iPhone movies, I download and have been using it a LOT- all the videos in the post were taken with it!)

Continuing the theme of loud and obnoxious, the wrestling Kung Fu Panda doll was a huge hit.

Actually, this one isn’t so much loud and obnoxious as it is plain disturbing. The box is illustrated with all the different ways you can torture wrestle with Panda to make him say different things… I keep wondering if this is some sort of serial killer training doll. Blech.

My personal favorite was the small air hockey set we got at a last minute trip to a hobby store near by:

It’s REAL air hockey.. like it’s battery powered and you turn it on so the puck sort of float/glides. Which of course means it also has NOISE but I’m willing to overlook it because it’s really fun! Jasper is pretty good at it, though he sometimes complains when we block his shot.

Another big hit was the Puppet Theater my parents and Aunt and Uncle bought him:

I think we will have front row seats to MANY performances courtesy of this toy!

One of my favorite last minute purchases for Jasper were these Emu monster boots. He had ONLY wanted to ever wear his sketcher light up sneakers to daycare, but with the colder weather and the fact that they play outside at daycare even in the winter, I knew I needed some warmer footwear for him. I figured that the monster faces would make them fun enough for him to want to put them on, and I was right!

I must admit that I balked at spending an extra $30 for the monster version, but then I found them on clearance at Garnet Hill which made it slightly less painful.

What I loved most about Christmas this year was experiencing how much Jasper enjoyed the traditions – from his excitement to opening the advent calendar every morning, to talking about our Elf on the Shelf Sparkle – even his new obsession with the Grinch who stole Christmas! He just really seemed to get “in the spirit”, I even found him singing Jingle Bells to himself!

But despite all the commercial aspects of the whole Holiday season, when I asked Jasper what his favorite part of Christmas was, he said going to his cousins’ house on Christmas Eve.. that’s my boy!

And here he has a little Christmas greeting for you all!