It was another banner Christmas at chez BrAdam (Brad+Adam=BrAdam). We spent the eve with Brad's parents and his sister's family and since his mother is anxious to open gifts the tradition is to open them on Christmas eve after dinner has been consumed. Thanks to Brad's brother-in-law the process is organized such that the youngest to oldest opens one present at a time so that we all get a chance to see who's getting what. Every year I hear stories how unwrapping gifts would last a mere minute or two, wrapping paper knee deep, and gifts potentially lost in the flotsam and jetsam. I like the orderly method.
As usual Brad's parents went overboard with us aptly acquiring almost everything we listed on our Amazon wish lists. Brad and I took a calculated risk that paid off for their gift, we gave them a Nintendo DS. They already have a lot of handheld video card games and whenever we come over one of them is usually on the couch playing them. Also, Brad is certain his mom was a closet gamer. Back in the day when he had a ColecoVision he could tell his mom had played it while she was alone at home while everyone was away at school or work. Like I said it paid off, when they unwrapped the gift they both responded to it with quite a bit of excitement, Brad's dad knew exactly what it was, going so far as to remove it from the box immediately to charge it. Score.
After dinner we went home and stayed up late by a fire watching episodes of Planet Earth on BluRay. It's so addicting, each episode is better than the last. So far my favorite one has been caves, which is a surprise because I wasn't expecting to be so engaged by caves but the locations they went to for Planet Earth are simply exquisite. Watching each episode makes me feel so delightfully insignificant.
Christmas morning we woke up late and opened the gifts that we got for each other. I got a really nice new wallet and a Webkinz. What's a Webkinz you ask? Well we saw these at the mall because we were getting them for my nieces and we thought they were so cute we got one for each of us as well. We are overgrown kids, we know, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Anyway, Webkinz have an activation code included with each one and you go online and adopt it as a pet. You have to make sure your pet stays happy, healthy, and fed (kinda like a Tamagouchi but Webkinz don't die). That's not all there is to it though. In order to get funds to buy what your pet needs you need to go do various activities and I must say I am impressed with the online content of this toy. The activities are super educational and perfect for kids, even for adults too - I like the trivia questions about history. There's even an section on the environment that squarely addresses that global warming is happening and educates you, and your pet, on how to help stop it.
I adopted at polar bear and named him Akiak, the Inuit word for brave.
The rest of the morning was spent playing video games. I was sucked into Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition on the Wii and Brad was engrossed with Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. I've never played Tomb Raider before so I'm really loving it. Parts of it make me think of Homer because you have to make rubbings of carvings and stuff.
Hope you all had a great Christmas too!
