Christmas Day was lovely, if exhausting. Rose with the baby and wife around 7 a.m., and he saw that Santa had come, and left him an igloo tent and a tiny baby bed with a doll sleeping in it. Then we loaded up the car and headed up to my sister-in-law's for more presents, cooking, and other adventures.

River went into a present-opening frenzy. He had the biggest pile (many of our friends sent him gifts; thank you), and he tore through it like a tiny hurricane, saying "Presents!" and "More more more!" and generally pausing only briefly to look at the contents of the wrapping paper before moving on to the next package. He was definitely more enamored of the process than the contents, though later he was appropriately appreciative of the actual gifts inside.

I got lots of nice stuff -- many good books, Left 4 Dead 2, and, best of all: Heather made me a Marla Mason action figure complete with dagger and reversible purple-and-white cloak! (She got me a silver stag-beetle pin too.)

We had the traditional big dinner, and drank various boozes, and finally loaded things up to come home a bit after 4. River promptly fell asleep in the car -- hours past his usual naptime -- and I sat down in the garage with him while he snoozed.

Once we got upstairs, we performed a TTR procedure (That's "Total Toy Replacement"). Pretty much all River's old toys, excepting some enduring favorites and his birthday gifts, got put into storage to make room for the HUGE quantities of new toys he acquired today.

After the kid went to bed Heather and I pretty much collapsed into a heap and watched some TV. And I spent some time slaying zombies into the wee hours.

Happy Boxing Day!