Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

So, Christmas in the Yankee Librarian family is pretty much the same. We open present to each other Christmas Eve and have Santa presents on Christmas morning. Followed by pushing, shoving, and crying. The family goes to my sister-in-law's sister's place, and I rest, relax, and enjoy the silence. Nice.

Some highlights from Christmas Eve: the red cowboy boots I gave my six year old niece. They are the cutest damn things ever.

My mom gave my brother a fur-lined hat from Eddie Bauer--you know, the kind with ear flaps. Don't ask me why, but my brother and I both love hats with ear flaps. And since Mom gave the hat to my brother, I wore it most of the night (because that' just the way it is). I thought my mom was going to hurt herself from laughing at me. She took a picture of me where I look like some slack-jawed yokel wearing fleece PJs.

The big present to the kids was a Wii. For whatever reason it didn't get set up until tonight. Oh my god, the Wii is the best thing to have ever been made. My brother set it up, watched my sister-in-law and I bowl and then went to bed. My SiL and I were so excited we kept playing. And playing. And playing. We joked we would be up until 6:00 am playing with the damn thing. We didn't make it that long, but it was at least 1:00 am when we finally quit. We bowled one game, and I kicked some bowling ass. Then we golfed three holes. We both sucked at that. I played a couple games of tennis and lost both times.

Then I discovered boxing. And it was awesome.

I kicked some Wii boxing ass. I don't think I have ever seen my SiL laugh so hard in her life--there was even snorting involved. She laughed even harder when I would say things like, "Hey, he's hitting me. What the fuck? I'm gonna kick your ass!" Then she started coaching me: "Protect your face. Lean to the right. Get him up against the ropes! Kidney punch! Kidney punch"

I am just trying to picture what we looked like. There's me in a tshirt, fleece PJ pants covered in sheep, and sock monkey slippers, and my SiL in her flannel nightgown. We're jumping up and down, swearing, and trying to beat the crap out of video game boxers who looked like Bill Gates.

I took a break so my SiL could box a few, and then I boxed against a few more. I stopped after I lost a 2-1 decision to a guy who looked like the host of the Actor's Studio on Bravo. He kicked my ass. But, damn, after a good 30-plus minutes of boxing my arms hurt, my shoulders hurt, and I was sweating. Who knew a video game could be such a workout?

I have got to get me one of these things.