I hope all of your holidays were as peaceful and pleasant as mine was. We spent the morning together as a family, us over at the kids' house watching Valerie still not get the whole present thing. We had a group video chat to bring in family in Florida and California. And I closed out the evening chatting with my mom and being absolutely baffled by screenshots shared in the game group text. This adds up to a perfect day. Now I'm in a quiet house, about to shut off the tree lights, with a giant fuzzy puppy sound asleep on my foot. Heaven.
Most of the presents today were aimed directly at the grandbaby, and I am totally here for that. I have most of what I need and want already. It was way more fun loading her up with clothes, interactive toys, musical instruments, and chocolate. I wasn't fast enough with a camera to catch her covered in chocolate before her mommy whipped out a wet wipe, but we have all seen pictures of little kids with their hands and faces oozing with the stuff. This was classic Madison Avenue kind of kid behavior. She did pretty well with slippers today, for a kid who hates having socks on her feet. She had rainbow monster feet slippers from Auntie and more subdued gray plaid ones from me. The toys she liked best were mini magna-doodles and a really nice tambourine that I think came from great-grandparents on her daddy's side. Overall, I think the quantity of new stuff was a bit overwhelming to her, but she kept her good attitude for most of the morning. I mean, she is 19 months old. There were a few tantrum moments, of course. But they were short and she was easily coaxed back on track. She is a level-headed kid who knows she has a loving and understanding family. That makes for an emotionally healthy little girl. And it makes for a happy holiday for all of us.
When I was struggling to come up with a present for my daughter and son-in-law, she joked that she was interested in a Nintendo Switch. Or rather, she thought she was joking. I heard that and thought, there we are. Both kids, all presents done. This was why Saoirse and I had to take that surprise drive to Loveland a week ago. It was the closest one I could find in a four-county area, by searching big chain websites. It was the Animal Crossing special edition, although it didn't come with that game. My daughter watched me looking on my phone to find it, so she knew I was doing it. She bought a couple of games to play on it, including Mario Kart, which I told her was my demand in return for the console. It was screenshots from Miitopia, a game I hadn't heard of before, that she had been sending to our group text. When my girls were little, I never got into video game systems. Since they grew up and moved out, this is the second time I've bought one of them a game console. And I think both times I was really into it, for one or two games only. Maybe I don't have to overthink why that is, and just settle in to play when I'm there.
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