Christmas Eve in Vince's family has a nice tradition that they open pajamas from the Mom at night before bed. Its fun to go to bed in nice new PJs and it looks great for the morning photos. Katie and CarolAnne got cute satiny pajamas and the boys got flannel pants. Sarah also got flannel pants but along with them got tacky leopard print slippers. Sarah loves tacky! And little did anyone know it would match PERFECTLY with her leopard print Santa hat she insisted on wearing. We're a...special...family if nothing else.
All the siblings wanted Vince to open "trick" present Sarah had prepared because none of us like to wait. Its amazing it lasted until Christmas Eve. We usually open everything on our anniversary because the waiting is so hard- not for our own presents but to give them to others. Vince's Dad didn't really want us to do this on Christmas Eve... but since Sarah's family opens on Christmas Eve and we blend the traditions...it happened.This present was in a LARGE box. Vince was pretty excited when it first appeared wrapped, who wouldn't- its a natural "from our childhood" instinct to want the big present. He ripped open the wrap, lifted the box flap and... "What?!" before him were gazillions of small individually wrapped presents. His excitement was shooting out his head- this was A LOT of presents people. He opened the first box and found nothing but a note "no present here, sorry try again". Oh it was ON! I had been saving every cereal, poptart, you-name-it-smaller-box for a few months (thank you mom-in-law-lady who let me rummage through recyclables) The notes were funny and either gave bad hints "there is nothing in this box, duh" from fake computer errors (Vince is a tech geek) and some boxes also included "pity candy" and small toys you'd find in a quarter machine. (sticky hands, bouncy balls, tacky rub on tattoo). It was a lot of fun. One box said "you'll know the grand prize when you reach it and heres a BIG hint- its hidden in the color RED" by this time the only boxes left were in one kind of red wrapping or another! Long story longer... he opened all the boxes and didn't find the "grand prize". Confused, he asked me if I forgot something. I re-read the clue to him "hidden by the color RED... it doesn't say its in a BOX" After insisting the gift was inside the big box, not in the house, Vince went through the wrapping scraps he had piled back into the original big box and was re-examining the shreds of paper front and back. He somehow lifted the bottom flap of the box (I think he was taking it apart at this point) and there under the flap was a small red envelope. He's a good sport and enjoyed it as much as I did. The siblings enjoyed egging him on and everyone had many good laughs as it went on. The ending "prize".. two tickets to see comedian/ventriloquist Jeff Dunham live when he comes in March.
-video coming soon- as in when Sarah figures out how to do it-
