We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and a wonderful Christmas day.
On Christmas Eve, we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house as we always do. We ate dinner - and I was really surprised Nicholas did not go tearing through all of the wrapped gifts. He was really patient until we were done eating, but did want to play in the sink so Grandma let him have one of his toys a bit early. Grandma and Grandpa got Nicholas this really cute drill toy that you drill screws into to make patterns and pictures. That kept Nicholas quite content for quite some time. Then, we finally got him to open up another present which was a fire-truck playset which opens up to reveal a miniature city with cars and streets and such - he was in heaven playing with this. At this point, he could care less that he had a stack of presents left to unwrap. Grandma got him unwrapping the rest of his presents and then he got the claw-amusement park game where you try to get prizes out using the claw. He loved that. Once he was done unwrapping all of his gifts, Grandpa came out with one more… the big remote control dinosaur. Nicholas was in love - he had been dragging us back to the toy store just to see this dinosaur since he had originally seen it the week before. Everytime we left the house, “toy store mommy” - he just loved that.
The dinosaur is hysterical. It walks, sleeps, burps, goes up on his hind legs and roars - and you’d think it would be scary - but no, he LOVES it. and he works the remote rather well. A couple of times the dinosaur did something he wasn’t expecting and the look on his face was classic!
We were over Grandma and Grandpa’s rather late, so I was hoping he would sleep in late the next morning. I still had breakfast to prepare and Santa had to go to work putting out presents for the morning.
On Christmas Day, Nicholas came down from bed and saw the livingroom full of gifts and had an “oh wow” expression on his face. All of his gifts from Mommy and Daddy were in this huge velvet sack with Santa’s face on the front. Nicholas had seen the box for this sack and had been hunting around the house for the presents for a week. 
Before we started opening gifts, I told him that Santa left a present downstairs (in his playroom) for him. He got to the top of the stairs, looked downstairs and stopped cold. I could see his dimples on the side of his face - Kitchen, Mommy!! Santa brought Nicholas his very own kitchen. He went downstairs, promptly opened and closed everything to check it out - it was not hard to tell, he was in heaven.
Today, Nicholas plowed through many of his gifts like a champion. Opening one, looking at it, putting it down, asking for another one. And boy did we go overboard, so he had alot to unwrap. It was very cute, we all ended up sitting around him, kind of like it was his Christmas “shower” where you watch the guest of honor unwrap gifts - which is usually very boring, but not this time. He loved the different wrapping papers, Dora, Charlie Brown & Snoopy, Mickey Mouse, etc. and easily named all of the characters on the box when we asked him who was on the paper.
We watched as he opened all kinds of games that he can play with us and take turns, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders and Cooties. I found this adorable tipping clown game where you stack the wooden pegs on him hoping you dont make him tip. He unwrapped a few Thomas & Geotrax pieces that he did not have, a few DVD’s and books for his “spaceship” trips. He also got a few toys for “daddy and Nicholas” activities like one of those big remote control cars and a tiny remote control helicopter. (Last year we bought a helicopter as a gift for a friend’s 8 year old. Nicholas controlled that so well that we were all shocked.)
Nicholas’s language all day was just incredible. He was chatty, sociable and loved asking for “More presents please” - Wished everyone a “merry christmas” was asking questions like “what are you doing?”
He sat with us (unprompted) while we were eating dinner (Nicholas was hungry earlier, so he had already eaten) - and he was just charming… delightful… full of happiness and joy.
My hope for 2009 is that Nicholas continues to make huge leaps towards recovery like he has in 2008. 2007 was the worst year that we had. Words cannot accurately compare the differences in our lives and the differences in Nicholas from 2007 to 2008. It is just astounding. I am excited for this next year to pass, to watch the gains, uncover more of his language and his abilities and to just see more of the Nicholas that is waiting to come out.
