12-14-12 AMOOXP Day 20

1995

The last year we bothered with a "professional" family Christmas photo.

Much more realistic.

Stockings at Muna's house

Samantha is just past three months old, so not terribly into Christmas just yet.

The night before Christmas, Nicholas got to open his stocking, new pajamas (Gargoyles, this year, were the in thing) and one present.  

The one present was the Hot Wheels Criss Cross Crash set, that takes up half of a very large bedroom and was a very stupid idea.

Meanwhile, Samantha just sat around being cute.

Nicholas, on the other hand, raked it in, including his own Batmobile Big Wheel.

And everything Toy Story. The very first movie we'd taken him to was Thanksgiving of this year, to see Toy Story. I'd figured he'd be able to sit still for ten minutes and then I'd spend the rest of the movie trying to keep him quiet and giving up at the halfway point. That boy sat stock-still the entire movie. He hadn't sat that still in-utero or any time after. And after that, Toy Story was it. He got Woody (and a Woody hat) and Buzz for Christmas that year. 

Christmas at the Saltsmans

Now a word about our footage this year, because it's so darn cute that you must appreciate it fully.

Nicholas is a couple of week shy of his third birthday. He's still using his binky, and has done a pretty good job of dealing with the addition of a sibling to his little world. All presents need to be played with immediately, which poses a bit of a problem when there is more than one. Open a tape? Let's watch it. Find a present? Let's open it and play with it. At one point he remembers that the night before he got the Hot Wheel Criss Cross Crash and the urge seizes him to go play with that. But his vocabulary is coming along and he's just a delight in terms of his unwavering belief in the goodness of Santa. 

To that end, Santa leaves him three things overnight: the Big Wheel, which he doesn't know how to ride, and two Batman toys, the most important of which is "Robin Hat On."  Nicholas loved his Robin action figure that came with a motorcycle helmet and he was dubbed Robin Hat On, taken everywhere, and then, sadly,  lost. All fall Bob had searched toy aisles everywhere, trying to find a replacement, but to no avail. Then, on Christmas Eve, when he'd gone out for something simple at Walmart, a bag of ice, I think, he tried one more time and, a Christmas miracle, there was one, and only one, way in the back. (And yes, he'd searched way in the back countless times before.)