Christmas 2011 was Livia’s first Christmas and Marshall’s third.
We talked to Marshall about Santa Claus many times in the weeks approaching Christmas, and he learned to recognize the fat man in the red, fur-lined coat, but he still didn’t quite get the whole idea of what Christmas and Santa mean. He grasped the idea of gifts, though. As we were coming down the stairs Christmas Eve, he saw one of the presents his dad was taking out to the car and he said, “Present! Downstairs!” He was very excited.
Having mastered the art of opening gifts at his last birthday party, he eagerly tore into the pile of Christmas gifts at his vovó’s house. He got so good at it that he started opening everyone else’s gifts, too, like Vovó’s nightgowns. He was quite glad to unwrap Livia’s gifts, as well. I noticed, though, that as soon as he saw that a gift contained clothing, he would toss the clothes into the air and move on to the next thing.
Marshall ate all the butterfly-shaped crackers on the cheese-and-cracker plate. Then he asked for another butterfly, and everyone said, “Oh, he said ‘butterfly!’ How cute!” His dad told me about this later and he seemed disgusted. He said, “It wasn’t cute. He was just trying to get another cracker out of them!” It was cute, I think, but yeah, he was totally working an angle.
Marshall got a set of toy Black & Decker tools. They are impressively realistic and sturdy. Both kids were totally engrossed by them and we had silence in the house for at least half an hour Christmas morning. That makes those plastic toys worth their weight in gold!
Livia couldn’t resist the snowflake ornaments on the tree. By the time we were done opening presents on Christmas day, she had removed all of the ones that she could reach. She’d grab a snowflake, ball it up in one of her moist little hands, then run around until someone took it away from her.