P-Town Christmas

We are officially in the midst of a P-town Christmas. Yes, it's early, but so far, it's been a blast. Last night, we let the kids exchange and open gifts. Oh. My. Gawd. It was utter chaos. There are 6 cousins, the oldest of whom is only 5, so all you could see was wrapping and tissue paper flying and you could only hear screams, shrieks, and occasionally, some wild sobbing. My youngest nephew, bless his heart, had a complete meltdown. He is only 3 and isn't exactly sure how all this Christmas stuff works. We had to wait on the oldest cousin to finish a holiday dinner elsewhere, so by the time the first present was opened, it was JD's bedtime anyway. And he, Avery and Reese had been waiting for almost 2 hours (plus 365 days) to open presents. They had cleaned, eaten a good dinner and behaved like little angels (sort of) so they could FINALLY have Christmas. And I can tell you that it was not at all what JD was waiting for. All he knows is that he asked Santa for Spiderman and Batman and his Aunt Dodi gave him a lame sweatsuit and a pretend shaving kit that he wasn't allowed to open because it's too messy. And his cousin was opening about a gazillion Spiderman toys. And Santa was nowhere in sight. He was not having fun.
Reese, meanwhile, got an adorable Dora nightgown and a purse filled with lipstick, earrings and necklaces from Cash. She went nuts. She put on the gown, all 6 of the necklaces and all three of the lipsticks and gave a style show for anyone who was interested. Avery got all "boy toys" so she was on cloud 9. She didn't know whether to play football, play Spiderman basketball, do the hippity-hop from JD, or drive cars on the Cars mat Grammy gave her.
Grammy and Pa Pa saved poor JD from his misery and loaded him down with bucking bulls and Spiderman figurines and lamps to last him at least until February. I would have to say that, despite the waiting, wailing and trash pile the size of Mount St. Helens, the night was an overall success.
And tonight, is the grown up's Christmas. We are hoping to have drinks and open presents together in a civilized manner while those heathen children play with last night's gifts in the other room. I'll keep you posted on how early into the night those dreams were crushed. It's crazy, and it's only just begun, but so far, it's been a wonderful Christmas!