Last year we spent Christmas in California with my parents and brother, and — perhaps because the big road trip to CA made Christmas seem like an extra big deal — we really indulged Emrick that year. He got lots of cute and special toys, including a rocking moose, a shopping cart with pretend food, a work bench with tools, and even a tricycle. It was fun getting him all of that stuff and setting it up under the tree on Christmas Eve. But as you may recall, Emrick was sick as a doggity dog last year and so could focus on little more than his miserable, miserable misery.

This year we spent a quiet Christmas at home and kept the presents to a minimum. As luck would have it, the kids and I all had a cold but it was mild enough that it didn’t seem to hinder our enjoyment of Christmas too much. Still, it took Emrick a while to “get into” the whole present-opening thing on Christmas morning.

First, he unloaded his stocking. Those Domo dolls were sold as a pair on Amazon. One for Emrick and one for Holly. Perfect!

The pic immediately above shows what has proven to be the World’s Greatest Stocking-Stuffer Ever. It’s a set of six, self-adhesive mustaches that I bought at the grocery store. Emrick had no clue what they were when he pulled them out, but the next day when I opened them up and showed him what they were for, hilarity ensued. Pictures tomorrow, I SWEAR!

Santa brought Emrick two toys that are featured in the movie Elf: an Etch-A-Sketch and a Jack-in-the-Box. Last year Emrick could not get enough of that movie. He would laugh when Buddy sings a silly song for his dad and then the dad (played by James Caan) says, “Wow. That was weird.” He’d laugh when Buddy says, “Does someone need a hug?” to the wild raccoon and the raccoon attacks Buddy. He’d laugh and imitate the old, frail nun who says, “But the children love the books!” The whole movie was just a joy to that kid. But this year? This year he was only about half as enthralled by it. He came and went from the family room as it was playing and really only consistently laughed at one scene, every time he saw it: the scene where Buddy drinks an entire 2-liter bottle of Coke in about ten seconds and then lets out a looooong burp a few minutes later. So that’s where we’re at now; we’re in the laughing-at-burps stage of Emrick’s childhood. My baby is growing up! He also laughs at farts and boogers. I’m pretty sure this is an official milestone… or maybe one of Freud’s Stages of Psycho-development.

Anyway, Emrick did not recognize the Etch-A-Sketch when he opened it, despite my trying to point it out to him in the movie in the days beforehand. That’s why he is just staring at it with utter detachment in the picture above. Still, this too has proven to be a pretty fun toy for him. No hilarious photos of Emrick enjoying the Etch-A-Sketch have been taken thus far, however.

Then there’s the Jack-in-the-Box:

See how uncertain Emrick looks in this picture here?

Last year was when I first tried to buy that Jack-in-the-Box but I had no success. There are several different kinds of JITBs, but I was specifically looking for the one with the jester because that’s the one in the movie. I didn’t get the idea until it was too late, though. I remember it like it was yesterday (**blurry images and dreamy music**)… Marcus had bought a toy workbench for Emrick via an online, in-store pick-up purchase at a ToysRUs in Huntington Beach. So when we drove out there to pick it up, I decided to look for the Jester-themed JITB while Marcus waited in line at the in-store pic-up counter. I looked all around the store and couldn’t find any JITBs, so finally I asked an employee. “Do you guys sell Jack-in-the-Boxes?” I asked. He said he thought so, but he wasn’t sure. So he got the attention of a female employee who was sitting at a computer in the middle of the store, looking up inventory to help other customers. He called her name and when she looked up, the male employee pointed toward me and said, “Jack in the box?” She stood up to communicate with me and explained, complete with arm gestures, that I needed to “Go down to Beach Boulevard and turn right. It’s a few lights down, on your left.”

lolwut?

She had given me directions to the Jack-in-the-Box fast food restaurant. The male employee and I stood silent for about four seconds and then he said, “No, like the toy.” “Oh,” she said, embarrassed. And then we all laughed, including the half dozen customers already huddled around her computer waiting to hear if their certain toy was stocked. Did I tell this story already? Anyway, I waited until she could look up my JITB in the computer. They had one, but not the jester kind, so I passed.

We went back to my parents’ house where I told them this story, and they advised that it was probably for the best. They thought Emrick was so young that a toy like that would just frighten him. Then they reminisced about an animated toy they had given to Clark on his first or second Christmas. The toy made loud noises and flipped across the room. Clarky no like.

I thought they had a point about a JITB being a scary toy for a kid as young as Emrick, but this year Emrick was older and tougher and I was determined to give it a try. I ordered the Jack-in-the-Box online and early, and hid it in the office after it arrived. It wouldn’t hurt to at least see if Emrick would like it. What’s the worst that could happen? A little mild, lifelong scarring of the psyche? No biggie.

Emrick was indeed a little scared of it at first — not hysterical, just cautious and uncomfortable. Once he realized what it did, he would turn the crank until just before Jack popped out. Then he’d run out of the room, only to return a second later and linger in the door while I continued turning the crank, thereby making Jack POP! But after a few times of that, he decided it was fun and now he does the whole thing all by himself. It still makes him jump, but I think he enjoys the startle because he always laughs afterward.

So what was Holly doing during all of this excitement? Just watching!

Later that morning we took pictures of Emrick and Holly together with their Domo dolls.

Aren’t they so sweet? Today I packed up the Christmas tree. When Emrick saw me dismantling it, he said, “Christmastime is over.”

I said, “That’s right.”

“We have to pack up all of our Christmas toys,” he said.

“Aww. No, Sweetie. You can keep your Christmas toys. We just have to pack up the decorations.”

What a cutie.

When Emrick turned one year old two years ago, we took him to a local studio for some professional portraits. He’d never been professionally photographed before and it seemed that his first birthday was the right occasion to finally get that done. Because of his shyness, that shoot yielded only a few really good pictures. Still, we decided to take him in for professional shots every year from then on. The idea was to schedule them around his birthday each year so that the pictures would be a record of how Emrick had changed in the course of a year. Well this year we were a little late. You may recall that Holly was born just ten days before Emrick’s third birthday, and I guess it took us a while to get our act together. So this year’s portraits were taken two months late… just like our birth announcements for Holly are late, and our Christmas cards may be late, and this post is late. Anyway, as long as we were getting Emrick’s pictures taken, we of course decided to have Holly photographed as well… and let me tell you, the pictures are beautiful. When we returned to the studio to see them for the first time, I nearly cried while we were looking them over. I don’t know if that’s because the pictures are better than usual, or if it’s just because I  love my beautiful children. I don’t know and I don’t care.

Here are three pictures from the shoot. I will share more, I promise. I just need more time to sort through them and select the ones most worth posting. I also plan to post a side-by-side with one of these pictures of Emrick and one of Marcus’ childhood pictures because HOLY COW.

Anyway, here’s a start: