In case you missed it, we did. Right before the end of the year. There were lights and everything.
Anyway, this was a special Christmas, because it was Oliver's first one. You should have seen his mother. It was the culmination of her entire life. If she'd been drinking wine, and it had been snowing, and a Newsie had been there, I think her brain might have shorted.
As it was, we had a very nice Christmas, just the five of us (Toby and O'Ryan were also in attendance). The pile of presents under our tree was truly disgusting. Capitalism had pulled down its designer jeans and taken a wicked dump in the corner of our living room. You would have thought that fifteen people lived here, or that we were collecting for a donation to Shriners. Nope. Pretty much all for one kid. A kid who had no clue what the hell he was looking at, or why he wasn't allowed to tear all of the shiny paper and jam it down his gullet.
This may be my last year without having to assemble something at 2 am, and for that I am grateful. This year, all we had to do was buy him one of everything in the infant toy aisle at Target, and then open boxes full of one million wrapped presents from friends and family. In related news, my son and his belongings are now the sole residents of our home. I'm taking Erin and the cats to live in a Public Storage unit in Panorama City. Please visit.
So yeah, he made out like a bandit. Not that he cares, really. His three favorite activities are still putting books in his mouth, putting stuffed animals in his mouth, and putting his fingers in his mouth until he gags himself and spits up six ounces of pureed corn. He couldn't care less about all the new gadgets with the flashing lights and catchy songs that his parents can't stop singing. ("Maybe you could be a purple monkey in a bubble gum tree, and...") He's a simple man, with simple tastes. And those tastes, by the way, do not include green beans. Saving you some time there.
He had a fun and exciting holiday season though. How can you not when your mom dresses you up like an elf and you look like this?
Yes, I cut his mother out of this photo. Maybe someday she'll get her own blog.
Oliver also got to meet Santa, whom he did not mind:
He got to be Santa, which he minded slightly more:
And he got to see a couple of awesome light displays (light display not pictured):
He even got to star in his first ever Christmas card:
So now, here we are. Seven months-plus, and he's turning from a baby into a little boy right before our eyes. He's sitting up like a pro. He's eating big people foods. He literally got his two front teeth for Christmas.
2018 was an adventure. But something tells me we just left the Hobbit-hole.
