How the Boettger's Spent Christmas

Our Christmas celebrations start on Christmas Eve at Aunt Mary & Uncle Bob's house with my Dad's family. Everyone was there, with the exception of my sister Amy and her husband (they live in FL) and my cousin Dan (he is in CA in the Navy). We began with delicious appetizers and then moved on to dinner. Aunt Mary always has a lot to choose from, there was fish, ham, salad, potato salad, lasanga, meatballs and sausage and I am sure I am forgetting something. We ate like D'Alonzo's. After dinner, we exchange gifts. Now that most of us kids are older, we all get gifts from Grandma and Grandpa, and Allison and Tommy get gifts from the Aunts and Uncles. I buy for Grandma & Grandpa and Aunt Mary for being a gracious hostess. David got gifts from everyone. He loved his Power Rangers clothes from Aunt Debbie and his book and Gap clothes from Aunt Mary. Grandmom and Grandpop gave him a remote control truck and money. He played all night with the truck. After some tasty dessert, we left & headed to my cousin Barbara's. David could not wait to get there and play with the kids. As soon as we walked in PJ & David gave David his Little People gift. He loved it. I then gave the boys their stuff, Maggie was sleeping (what a good girl). Aunt Marylynn gave David 2 beautiful outfits and then he was off to play. I got to spend some nice time with Meghan and Barb while sipping some wine and watching the kids play so nice together. We left there about 11 pm. David fell asleep on the way home which was perfect. Steve put him in his bed when we got home and then Santa did his thing. The next morning David was SO excited to see that Santa left him LOTS of presents. He got air hockey (tabletop), trains, power rangers, DVDs, clothes and lots lots more. Santa left me Sirius satelite radio, bras, expensive jeans, lots of CDs, CSI DVDs, and a beautiful necklace. Steve got shirts, thermals and a Flat Panel HD TV. MomMom & Gramps stayed over and they got stuff too. MomMom got a wine bottle opener, Anita Baker Xmas CD and Oprah DVDs. Gramps got Donald Duck Pj's, Jamie Foxx CD and Train DVD. Amy, Andrew, Steve and I also got them tickets to Jersey Boys on Broadway. We all had a great Christmas morning. David played with his toys while Steve and I got ready to head out to Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bob's to celebrate with my Mom's side. It was real nice for all us to be together especially with Nana passing away the day before. Aunt Kathy's is always lots of fun. We do a grab bag with the whole family. We choose names on Thanksgiving and there is a $50 limit. Before we exchanged gifts, we eat a yummy dinner. Aunt Kathy also makes way to much food and we chow down. Her sweet potatoes are to die for so I had seconds. After dinner we start the grab bag exchange. I host the event and this year we went from oldest to youngest. Before you can get your gift, you have to try and guess who had you. I allowed the guesser to ask me 3 yes or no questions this year to make it easier. My Mom went first and my cousin Jackie was last. We all got loads of great stuff and had a blast. I will not mention everything that went on, but I must tell you about my cousin John's gift. My cousin Mike had John and on John's wish list was Seinfeld DVD, something else and a new girlfriend. Yes, you guessed it, Mike bought John a new girlfriend - a Fat Ass Party Doll that blows up. It was the most hilarious thing I ever saw. We all hung out having a great time drinking, eating and reminiscing. We needed that time together. We left there real late and drove home in major fog, but made it home safely. The next day we drove to Tracey and Rich's in PA for a Boettger celebration. We opened gifts as soon as we arrived, because we had a surprise planned for later that night. Tracey and Rich got Steve, David and I plane tickets to FL in July to celebrate Mom Boettger's 60th B'day along with Atari Flashback for Steve, a candle and Disney Xmas book for me and clothes and toys for David. We got Tracey Tinkerbell PJ's, slippers and shirt and a Mickey Initial bracelet, Rich Karaoke for PS2 with 2 mics and tennis stuff. The surprise was tickets for the kids to Disney On Ice in Phillie. Ally also got Disney Scene It and a Baby Doll and Ty got Charlie and the Chocolate Factory game for PS2 and a Power Rangers Boppin Bag. Rich drove us all in to Phillie for the show. The kids, Tracey and I loved it. It was really good and lots of fun. I bought all the kids programs that came with Incredibles masks so they can remember our trip. When we got home, we ate take out and just relaxed. I spent the next day with Tracey and the guys and kids hung out at the house. Before we left we went for lunch at a great restaurant near their house - David slept through the whole thing. It was a good thing we ate a lot, cause it took us 2 1/2 hours to get home! Overall we had a nice Christmas. We spent time with our family and received some great gifts. Nana was missed, but not forgotten.