Christmas with Ryan's family

As promised, I am finally getting to write about Christmas with Ryan's family. This was our year to stay in The Woodlands. On Christmas Eve we ate dinner at his parents then went to church at 9. Kevin's fiance' Steph joined us for church. When we returned from church, we ate cookies. Ryan's mom bakes TONS of cookies each year and the boys EAT tons of cookies! It works out nicely (considering I baked ginger cookies and they are STILL IN MY FREEZER!) Anyway, I digress. After cookies, Ryan and I made quick stop at his friend Brandon's house. Brandon's parents always have people over on Christmas Eve and its always fun to see everyone dressed up a little after church.

We went back to Ryan's parent's to spend the night. Eric's fiance', Whitney came over for a little while. We finally decided to "go to bed" so that "Santa could come". "Go to bed" means that the boys start playing like they are 5 year olds. Since they don't have any of the newer game systems at his parents house, Ryan and his brothers started getting out all their old toys. First was the Micro Machines. Then came the Darda Race Cars and Track. To three 20-something year old boys, you'd have thought they'd gotten new iPhones! These three were in heaven building their race track.

I fell asleep on the couch (a favorite hobby of mine, don't know where I get it from, ::cough:: mom ::cough::) during most of this. I eventually got up and went to bed, which of course, Ryan's bedroom is right off the game room, so I might as well have stayed on the couch. Really though, I was so tired that I fell asleep again just fine. Every 30 or so minutes I'd hear a big roar from the game room, but I'd go right back to sleep.

We woke up the next morning and Ryan was telling me how cool all their race tracks were and how much fun I missed out on (me and the bed were having a perfect evening in my book!). He told me about how they wanted to get the Lego's out but the box was heavy so they decided not to. We went downstairs and Ryan and Kevin were all giddy about "just wait and see when Eric gets up". Well, Eric got up, though I don't know if he ever really went to bed. During all the playing the boys were taking lots of pictures and video with their digital camera's. And thanks to modern technology, we have a quite professional video of the whole evening. Eric had been up until around 7am creating this masterpiece!



After watching the video SEVERAL times, we were all in tears from laughing so hard. Then we ate breakfast, opened gifts and prepared for lunch. Oh, the gifts... so all while the boys are telling these stories and mentioning how they should have gotten the Lego's out, I am biting my tongue. What Ryan didn't know is one of the gifts under the tree was a Lego Dump Truck set (age 5-12, perfect). I knew he would like it when I bought it, but had no clue how much it would fit with the theme of the night before. I think the other boys were jealous. Aside from the Lego's, there was a prominent theme in our gift giving. Kevin and Eric got lots of tools since they are both about to get married and move into their own places. And we all got lots of "tops"... as in shirts. There was only one pair of shorts given, everything else was, as Ryan's dad said, "Tops and Tools".

Steph joined us for lunch after having Christmas morning with her family. Later that afternoon the Ryan and Eric got the old electric race car track out and built it on the pool table. This went on until at least 7pm. Boys will be boys!

(I hope to update this post with a few more pictures but I have to get them from Ryan's dad. I'll post when I do.)