Christmas 2008, brought to you by Jesus and Santa

Since I know you're all waiting with great anticipation...yes, that nice, big, red-suited Santa man did in fact bring my little monorail set! After waking up Christmas morning and being greeted by the mountain of gifts from Santa, Mom and Dad, I was pretty excited. He ate both of the reindeer cookies I left for him, drank the apple juice (something told me Santa isn't much of a milk drinker) and left a cool note just for me. He even went the extra mile and filled my Christmas stocking with not one, but TWO real-life Wonka bars!

I must admit, I had some doubts for awhile. I opened present after present without any sign of the monorail. But because there was so much other neat stuff, it didn't bother me too much. When I got down to the last gift, Mom said she'd double check the Christmas tree and sure enough, one more box with my name on it. So here's a shout out to Mr. Claus...you really came through for me, man. I owe you one.

That pretty much set the tone for a great day altogether. We got dressed and headed out to visit the family at Great-Grandpa's house. I couldn't wait to show cousin Alyssa my monorail. But as soon as I got there, she was handing me even more gifts, so it was a paper-ripping party all over again! Then all us cousins huddled up for some Rock Band action, featuring Dad as the lead singer. That must be where I get my stage presence from.

Soon we were on the road again, stopping for a quick visit with Ama and Auntie. I owe a lot of my style points to those two, who keep my wardrobe well stocked for Christmas. And they sure came through again this time.

When we finally settled at Papa's house there were (I bet you guessed it by now)...more presents. But not until after I sat in Papa's lap for the annual reading of the Christmas story from the bible. Nana, Papa, Uncle Chaka, Dad, Mom, Kaitlin and I all listened as Papa read about the baby Jesus and then we prayed. It was a nice, quiet moment before I got to tear more paper!

By the end of the day I was still happy about receiving the monorail I had asked for, but even more thrilled to have such a big and loving family. Sure, the presents are always fun, but each one of those packages represents someone who loves me to pieces, and it's pretty hard not to smile about that. So my biggest thanks go out to YOU! You all really know how to make a guy feel special.

I hope your Christmas was as filled to the brim with goodness and love as mine was. And if you ask real nicely, I'll let you come over and play with the little monorail set.