Chapter 372 Happy New Year!

I hope you all had as wonderful of a Christmas as Bear had. 

I think Reagan enjoyed her Christmas more than Bear did.

I had a plan for the gifts I was going to make for Christmas, but as usual, I was a bit behind schedule and spend a couple of days trying to catch up. I made cups for Kyanne and Ryan's checks...

...a dozen floating ornaments for Bob's co-workers...

A sign for Jennie and James, Chris' sister and brother-in-law that were coming for Christmas.... 

...a sign for their son, William, who loves baseball...

...a sign for Chris' parent's family camp in Maine...

 ...and a table top tent for Reagan. This is the front wall of the tent.

The back wall with fruit and vegetables on Velcro so they can be moved to the kitchen.

The living room on the inside.

The kitchen on the inside with fridge and oven doors that open and Velcro for the fruit and veggies.

There was more, but I forgot to take pictures. Reagan loved her tent but we had to put it away since cousin William appeared to be a threat to Reagan's new territory and it was more peaceful to keep it put away.

But while it was out, Reagan loved it and had her mommy in there with her cooking dinner. Carissa is wearing her Snuggie Tail Shark.

While I was busy crafting for Christmas, Bob was also making my present. It's a replica of the The Ridge race track in Shelton that we took our driving day on. We have a "transportation" type wall happening in the family room so it can go there to help us relive our track day.

Friday the carefully coordinated Christmas launch sequence had begun to count down. We picked Chris' parents up at SeaTac late that night and brought them to our house for the short night ahead of us. The next morning we loaded up both cars with excited grandparents and headed for Kingston. 

This was the first time Reagan had seen my new car and she wanted get inside to see it up close and personal. 

She wouldn't pretend to drive it though until she had her seat belt on!

The car has been given the reading seal of approval.

It was logical that Jennie and James and their 18 month old son, William, stay at the house and that filled it up. That meant that us grandparents got to check out the local crispy-new hotel at the local casino, The Point. I didn't even know there was a casino out there.  The room was very nice and was odd that it is basically in the middle of nowhere.

The next day, it was chaos-on-chaos but lots of fun. It took an entire day for the kids to open their presents. Reagan was sooo patient with the present opening and seeing that William had his turns too. Here Jennie is helping William unwrap his present. 

We set up a second table in Carissa's living room for meals and it worked out beautifully.

Rare snuggles from Reagan.

Chris and James, Jennie's husband, try to orbit the chaos by staying out in the kitchen.

Bear observes the strange pack behavior of humans.

Becky, Chris' mother, gave Reagan a Minnie Mouse and it was a hit!

Even Bear Dog got presents. The poor dog had to hunt for his bed because it got moved out of the way on a regular basis.

Gatsby had to be in the middle of everything that was happening. EVERYTHING.

Carissa and Reagan got matching Snuggie Tails. It was a nice size for Reagan and will be good to keep Carissa's knees warm while watching TV. You got a glimpse of it sticking out of Reagan's table tent earlier.

Reagan opens Aunt JoAnn's book.

Bear looks like he's totally humiliated with his bow while he waits for his bed to come back from from an emergency washing.

Chris' mom brought matching jammies for the kids. Cousin time at Christmas won't happen that often with these two so all the Christmas stops were pulled out. It's hard to believe that just a year ago William had open heart surgery due to a hole in his heart. This caused severe failure to thrive but now he is a healthy young toddler.

Chris' sister, Jennie, holds Reagan. Their matching noses scream "We're related!"

 Carissa and Reagan in a rare moment without tons of folks crowded around.

The cute Walker family with me in the background.

Cousins in the tub. This will be a once in a lifetime experience and Grammie Walker is loving every moment of it! 

Grampie Walker in a classic Christmas photo while Grampie reads "The Night Before Christmas" just like he did with Jennie and Chris so many years ago.

Done and done.