Scenes from a family Christmas

Scene 1:

It's Christmas morning. My two-year-old niece Jenna is on a gift-wrapping frenzy. Gift wrap is flying, boxes are flying, presents are flying. It's clear that she's figured out that one of the best things about Christmas is opening presents.

Most of her presents are open. She spied her dad's present and goes running for it.

Cue me, Jeff and her dad: "No no Jenna! That's for daddy!"

Her happy smile drops. She starts sobbing. The high from the gift wrapping frenzy comes crashing down until her mom asks for her help to unwrap presents. Jenna's smile returns and she begins ripping into presents with gusto.

Scene 2:

Jeff and I are at my mom's. We've just gotten there on Christmas day. We make our way to the bedroom that we'll be sleeping in. Mom's gotten a new phone. Despite the fact that she told me she wanted one as a Christmas present. As a matter of fact, it's the same type of phone I bought her -- digital cordless with answering machine.

I'd be pissed, but frankly, I'm finding it funny as hell.

Scene 3:

Rooster -- the little Emperor of my family -- is awake and cranky. I'm holding all 20 pounds of him and offer him my finger. He takes it, shoves it into his mouth and starts gnawing away. I'm no longer sure if I have a nephew of a budding cannibal in my hands.

Scene 4:

Christmas Eve. It's about 11:45 p.m. Jeff and his dad are assembling a toy kitchen for Jenna. I'm crawling all over it, bending my body in strange contortions putting decals of wallpapers, barns, sky, touch controls and an oven display showing cookies that are approximately an inch thick baking. It's tricky because you want to put the decals on straight, instead of crooked or upside down.

"Hrm." Jeff says, "Maybe we should have put the decals on first before we put this together."