Christmas 2019 is a wrap…

We’ve had company staying with us since Christmas Eve so we have been busy enjoying the holiday festivities and I have been off of social media for the most part.

Not to say there have not been any worthy posts. Oh…there have my friends. Lucky for you, I thought to take pics. 

So to recap…here’s how Christmas 2019 went down in Riley World in pictures…

J1 and J2 spent the night so they would be here to start “opening presents” promptly at 9:30am. Both boys were out celebrating until the early hours of the 25^th. One of them was genuinely excited. The other two were genuinely faking it.  

By 9:58am, Riley had disappeared upstairs with his stash.

By 10:00am, J1 and J2 had disappeared back to bed.

J1 was occupying R’s space downstairs. Riley made it perfectly clear that he was not thrilled. “How many nights is J1 staying?  He’s STAYING isn’t he.”  We tried to assure him it was only for the one night. 

After brunch J1 went downstairs to get packed up and found this…

Not unusual for Riley to put things “back to normal”.

I guess it was past check-out time because R had moved all of J1’s things into the bathroom. 

Unfortunately, Fred got sick and we had to play musical beds on the 27^th. The change in routine started the countdown to when they would be leaving. “How many more nights are they staying? 5 more nights??” followed every morning since with the number of nights. Being tactful is not a Riley World strong suit.

Last year we negotiated leaving the tree decorated until January 1^st and it worked!  So, this year I was pretty confident that he would leave the tree decorated until January 2^nd (after our friends leave).

We woke up on the 29^th to this…

Not undecorated but not quite decorated either.

This morning (December 31^st)…

I guess all the changes were too much after all. 

From our family to yours, may 2020 bring all things good...health, happiness and love!

5...More...Sleeps...

Look at that face.  Is that not the face of anticipation??

Last night was the “Special O” Christmas bowling night where the big man shows up to “surprise” everybody. It was at this event 7 years ago that Riley surprised us all and went up to sit with Santa for the very first time.

Ever since, he has never looked back. At age 20, we even got our first Mall Santa picture.

Riley was eagerly awaiting Santa’s arrival. He was ready. He knew what to do…the same thing they have done for the past 6 years. They would call his name, he would bound up to sit on Santa’s knee and the conversation would go EXACTLY like this:

Santa:  What’s your name big fella?
R:  My name’s Riley Tucker.
Santa:  And what would you like for Christmas?
* At this point, Riley would recite his entire Christmas list *  This year's list...
R:  Frosty the Snowman the original TV classic with the cover from Amazon I found it a DVD player 3 movie Illumination Despicable Me 1, 2 and 3 Shrek the Ultimate Collection Madagascar the Ultimate Collection Cheaper by the Dozen 1 and 2. 
Santa:  I’ll see what I can do for you.

This year…well…*gulp*…they did things a little differently. To be more efficient, they called up the teams one at a time and everyone got to sit on Santa’s knee and have a picture taken. There was not a lot of chit chat. I saw things slowly slipping sideways.

This was very confusing for Riley. He had been waiting patiently to have his “conversation” with Santa. He went up, sat on Santa's knee and waited for Santa to start.

Only he didn't. He smiled for the camera. And then he waited. 

Some awkward silence.

Santa gave him his cookie which basically was the “get off my knee and move along” gesture. Riley World has a hard time understanding gestures. So…Riley sat there still waiting.

Look how excited he is about the cookie.

More awkward silence.

And just as I was about to call Riley down, Santa asked “What would you like for Christmas?” followed by the “I’ll see what I can do for you.”

With that...all was right in Riley World and he had his jacket on and was out the door in the blink of an eye. 

Wishing you all a wonderful & safe holiday season!!