Hoard

After Luca’s birthday, Diana asked, “What are you going to ask Santa for now that you got all this great birthday loot?”

Luca thought and said, “I have everything I need.  You can tell Santa not to get me anything.”

Well, this kind of generosity of spirit simply had to be rewarded.  With tons and tons of presents.

The first stop on the Christmas presentathon was Grandma Connie’s house a week before the big day.  Grandma Connie knew exactly what would make our children happy this Christmas with her innate sense of giving and an accurate Amazon.com wish list.

Before they got to open their gifts, Grandma Connie made her grandchildren attend the Peoria Festival of Lights.  The Festival of Lights is a special kind of torture for a six year old and a four year old with present fever.  Cars meandering at 5mph through a picturesque road lined with intricate illuminated decorations and Bing Crosby mocking them through the stereo speakers.

We made it back to Grandma Connie’s before their heads exploded and they tore into their presents.

Grandma Connie and my brothers made sure there was not a single Rescue Bot left in the world not owned by Luca.  Elijah got a bunch of Skylanders stuff.  An obsession that we’ll address in a future blog post.

While all the cousins ripped into their boxes with hyena-like efficiency, Luca merely observed his presents.

I asked him if he wanted me to open some of his toys to play with while we raided my father’s Scotch collection.

He said, “Dad.  Can we take these presents out to the car?  I don’t want to open them.”

I assured him his cousins had no intention of absconding with his Rescue Bots.  But Luca insisted we keep them secure.  It was 12 degrees out, so I suggested a far safer place was in Connie’s guest room.  Because the thieves would have to get past Grandma Connie, who we all know has an incredible left hook.

This made him feel better and we placed all his stuff on a love seat.  Throughout the night he crept upstairs to make sure his stuff was ok.  And he wouldn’t touch them until we drove the three hours back to Evanston.

Special shout out to Chris B, a new reader who says he looks forward to my end jokes. 

Um, Chris.  I got nothing today.  Also, sorry for the terrible spelling and grammar.  This post was titled “Horde” until 1 minute ago.