Erin Hughes.com

Eric and I woke up and went to Uncle Patrick's. I was feeling some stress from spending so much time with Eric cause he had started a Champaign of not listening to me. I wanted to do some stuff with him like going sledding and other things but the weather had not been cooperating. This forced us to drive around allot and not really have as much fun as he would want. Eventually at Uncle Patrick's house we played some more Play-station 2 and Eric was in a better mood. I took him home to my parents home and to my relief grandpa & Grandma offered to watch him while I went out with one of my old friends. Don is a guy who use to be one of my coaches in High-school. He has always been a good guy to hang out with and lots of fun to talk to. He told me that Sam a guy who I had only met once was coming into town and flying into Buffalo Airport. We drove down to Buffalo and talked about life in Japan our families and life in general. When we got to Buffalo and picked up Sam we instantly remembered each other cause 10 years ago we had picked up a couple of not so hot women together.

The day after Christmas was a bit of a haze. I remember that it was a Monday and we did some stuff, but I can’t for the life of me remember what. I think it was a pretty quite day, where Eric and I went to Patrick’s house and we stopped by to see my friends at Microworx and pick up some parts for my sister Mary’s computer. We got something to eat and then went to Uncle Patrick’s house where I proceeded to get my butt whooped @ Soul Caliber 2 by my 4 year old son. I set up the game so he could play on the Easy level and he called me in a few minutes to tell me that he had finished. I thought that he meant he didn’t want to play any more....... Nope wrong answer. He had finished the game and was at the end screen where he had to enter his high score and was stuck. We went home and ate a little dinner and then were off to bed and rested up for another day.

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.

We woke up early and had breakfast the night before my mother had expressed her displeasure with the fact that last year the did not have a tree and said that she would aprecheate it if we made one appear. It took a little bit to get Eric and Dad rolling but in no time we were in the truck and out on the search for a tree. We went to all the places we had been the day before and they were all closed or had signs saying "SOLD OUT". I haven't lived in America for a long time but I remember never seeing a sold out sign when we went to get trees. This was a first for my Dad too usually on the day before Christmas people were giving away trees. We drove around for close to 2 hours going as far out as Hamlin and down the Hamlin beach Expressway. Finally we got off in Greece some where and Dad remembered a place where he had seen them selling trees in the past. We pulled in and sure enough they had some. Eric picked out the tree that he thought was best and we were off! I thought since we were already near the city we should stop at Patrick’s and pick up some of the things I needed for Christmas.