man, i hope i don’t fuck this up

in many ways this feels like my first “real” xmas with the ufw…

’cause this year this kiddo’s here. so we actually have six this year, and my table only sits four. might be seven. and i gotta keep the whole santa myth alive…so two sets of gifts and what-not. i’ve been told seeing a kid totally geek out on xmas morning makes it all worth it, so i guess we shall see.

but i have some concerns:

get yo’ eye-tal-ian grub on? – my family has not drop one of italian blood in it, but thanks to time in new jersey where those people breed like rabbits (and now gel their hair up to heights comparable to their ears) we have lasagna every xmas. but the kid doesn’t eat lasagna. i MIGHT be able to get him to try it, but chances are thin. guess he’s living off garlic bread and appetizers. and i’m already guessing…

one bottle limit – i’m not a really big wine guy, but xmas with the combo of italian food and time with uncle arthur normally necessitates it. and usually it’s a bottle…or two. and i buy 1.5l bottles of italian table wine for the event, so i guess we need to cap it this year? or share with him? i figure it’ll make some things more amusing to him, like uncle arthur and…

cinema de’ xmas? – i need to buy national lampoon’s xmas vacation on blu-ray or dvd or whatever, but i already have bad santa, which is our typical holiday flick. guess it’ll have to wait for him to crash? is ten too young for that? i had already figured him sacking out was when it’s…

saint nookie time – on the up side, we are pretty much the masters of the stealth activity at this point…and the kid’s a really sound sleeper. but we have had a lot of fun the last couple xmas mornings, which i suppose might draw to a close between the mother-in-law heading over and the fact that i know when i was his age i got up at the ass-crack of dawn to open presents. i suppose we can make up for it the night before, which i figure is also when some boozing can happen but i gotta wonder…

when do you load the tree? – i don’t know if we throw the gifts out there before we crash or set an alarm? the kiddo normally gets up at 6:45ish on school days, and i know i ain’t looking to get up that early…but will he sleep in? or do you do it the night before in the hopes he doesn’t go check in the middle of the night? at least if he does, and i’m sound asleep, he’ll still get busted by…

good ol’ budnik – while my poor boy did his share of crate time partially to calm him down and partially ’cause i was a lazy pup parent, but now he stays out of his crate pretty much 24/7 with no issue – let the boy wander the halls in the middle of the night and budnik WILL let me know. now if he can only be cool while we try the xmas meal with him out, we should be good…

…guess we’ll see on the other side of things, huh?