According to the polls, 33% of you believed Emma would receive the most gifts. In actuality, Emma & Andrew received the most gifts followed by Lisa and then me. Unfortunately Jesus did not receive any gifts in our family (it was his birthday, too, for Christ sakes!), although Buddha did get a Wii and a gift certificate to Chili's.
Before getting to our new poll, I thought I'd go over how our holidays went in Santa Clara and Sacramento. When we first arrived in Santa Clara, as soon as we brought the kids inside Grandma Ichinaga's house she went straight for them. She didn't even offer to help bring in some of our luggage (I'll remember that, Sumi...). And from that moment on it was all about the kids.
All of Lisa's family came over to see the kids: her brothers Randy, Wes, Mike, Joey, and sister Susan (Auntie Anne's nemesis). They also brought along their respective wives, husbands, fiances, niece and nephews. With all of these Asians in one room, it was like a community theater's production of Flower Drum Song. Generally, I have enough energy to play around with all of the niece and nephews, but this year was especially tiring having the weight of our newborns.
Right after our annual Christmas brunch at Susan's house, we packed up the car and left for Sacramento. After a few hours, we arrived and as I remembered how Grandma Ichinaga didn't help us with the luggage because we brought the kids in first, I decided to bring in the kids last this time. So after several hours of unpacking our car and luggage, I finally returned to our car to bring the kids inside to see Grandma and Grandpa Ichikawa. We opened up our presents, had dinner, and rested the remainder of the night.
The next day my grandma visited to see her great-grandkids for the first time. Upon meeting them, she first pointed at Andrew, then Emma and said, "Dark. Light." I wasn't too sure if she was talking about their complexion or Star Wars personalities, but it was still a great Kodak moment.
Today, my best friend all the way from third grade, Koichi, visited with his three year old daughter, Ellie. Ellie's a cute, energetic girl who showed us her dances, songs, and fancy coat tricks. As I was playing with Ellie, we started to make stupid sounds at one another with pointy fingers.
"Blurp!" I exclaimed.
"Beep!" she answered.
Then I squinted my eyes and raised one eyebrow as I pointed my fingers at her as if I was pulling her in with a tractor beam. Ellie backed up a few steps looking concerned. She turned towards Lisa and asked, "Why is he doing that to me?"
Before you know it, Ellie started to bawl! She crawled on Koichi's lap burrowing her sad face into his chest.
I felt so bad! I asked her if she was okay and that I was sorry.
With tears running down her cheeks, she wiped them away with her velvet sleeves and raised her face towards me. What I was thinking would come next would be a little smile or one of those non sequitors that little kids often say. But I did not expect her to say what she said...
"Why do you always bother me?"
Why do I always bother you? Oh crap! She suddenly time warped me back to high school when that's what every girl I ever liked said to me. But like most three year olds, a few minutes past and everything was forgotten...unlike high school in which the embarrassment lasted at least a full semester.
This whole story led me to thinking what Andrew and Emma will think of me as a father when they grow up. Will they get me or will they be totally horrified by me? So this leads us to this week's poll: Will Andrew and Emma understand my sense of humor or not?
Tomorrow, I'll get a batch of pictures from last week posted for you to look at!
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