Eric woke me up at 9 am on Christmas morning.
"Dada" he whispered to me, "Santa-san anno sa uchini ni prensento nakani", he went on in Japanese about whether Santa had brought him a gift.
"Why don't you go down and check?" I asked.
He explained again that he was afraid that Santa was still down their.
"Santa is long gone by now Buddy why don’t you go down and have a look."
He looked at me and said "OK Dada."
I heard him quietly slip down the stairs and pause at the end. As I lay in bed I heard him make his way into the kitchen and then into the living room. There was a long pause of silence. The I heard him scream "DADA DADA" as he came running up the stairs and burst into our room
"DADA DADA SANTA SAN NAKI NI PRESENTO ZEMBU AREMASU!" he screamed. AS he blurted more and more excitedly about the presents downstairs in Japanese he pulled my sleeve and tried to get me out of bed. I got up and was chuckling as we went downstairs to where the presents were.
No one was awake yet so I got him a donut and we sat down and waited for everyone else.
My Dad & brother Patrick had bought a Lionel Train set and we set it up Christmas Eve after Eric went to bed. I turned it on for Eric as we waited for every one else.
Finally when everyone was up Eric open his presents.
He got LOTS of stuff from Santa, Grampa & Grandma, and Aunt Mary.
When he was finished opening his stuff he got some clothes, lots of toys and some games. I was pretty happy that most of the toys are not so loud.
Some where along the line I noticed that we needed batteries for some of the toys. I snuck out of the house and drove about 20 minutes away to get some. This was the first time since I arrived that Eric was not with me...... and it was quite. REALLY QUITE!
We had a little breakfast and Eric had a lot of sugar but he was in a great mood all day and played with his Aunt Mary, and I till people started to show up a little later.
Around 3 my family started to arrive and they all had presents for Eric as well.
Books and Toy cars and all kinds of stuff.
Eventually Uncle Patrick and Casey arrived. Patrick brought MORE presents and Eric was really excited by the Thomas the Train set that he brought.
We sat down for dinner and ate. After that we sang Christmas songs and we passed a basket a presents. Eric eagerly carried the basket from person to person till finally some one picked out his present then he was finished.
Around 10 or 11 PM Eric and I had enough. I took him upstairs to go to bed and read him a story that my parents had bought me when I was a kid.
I told him it was time to sleep and he said "OK Dada." Turned his head and closed his eyes and went to sleep.
