By riding the mall escalators for a half hour while Dad shopped. Really... a half hour.
After the wee ones were tucked soundly in their bed, Sam and Jess headed out to a New Year's Eve party at Brian's with Alison.
Here's to a new decade of peace and happiness!
But luckily, she was in town doing some holiday visiting, and showing off that phat ring that Adam just gave her. Hizzah! Jess met her for some fine conversation over some tasty Mexican.
Maddie later headed to the park with Dad to wash away some of the pain caused by napping through MelB's visit.
This morning, these presents still remained under the tree - there was a lot of love under that tree.
Maddie enjoyed a cell phone from Mimi and Dzedo. "Hi, Hi, Hi!"
Max enjoyed a reindeer hat from Taisie and Grandpa Toby.
The rest of gifts flew by in a blur, to be appreciated later, as Maddie had hit the point of tear-off-paper, grab-next-gift, tear, grab, tear, grab, adrenaline rush, repeat.
After a full Dec. 25, Maddie was ready for more. There were still about half of the presents under the tree, as our girl had become way overstimulated the day before.
Max got a truck to chew.
And Maddie continued to take the opening process very seriously, declaring, "Ah! Teee!" after unwrapping each present. We believe it is her version of "Wow-wee!"
Max enjoyed his favorite new toy, his feet, most of all. Sadly, for him, he has not figured out how to get them into his mouth.
At 6:30am, 2 excited kiddos woke Sam and Jess up, ready for Christmas morning. Ok, they had no idea it was any different then any other day, but Sam and Jess complained less about the wakeup.
Sam got the cinnamon rolls in the oven, and prepped a pineapple - something Mimi would serve on special mornings.
Eventhough our family was thousands of miles away from other family and friends, they were clearly with us under the tree.
We began with a little stocking opening. This was Maddie's first stocking stuffer. To add to it's yuck nature, it also has a slightly sticky outside, which when dropped on the carpet, collects all the wool lint, making it sticky and fuzzy.
This is what you do with it. Blow it up through it's mouth, shove the mouth hole into it's mouth cavity, grab it by the tail, and voila - disgusting punching bag with little rubbery limbs sticking out.
Max got a chew toy.
At the bottom of the stockings, were oranges - a Page tradition from the Germans, except this time it was Cali updated - the oranges were from our tree.
Maddie's first choice of gift was the one that was the same size as her from Taisie and Grandpa Toby.
Sam and Jess quickly realized that a parent duty on Christmas Eve is some assembly required. This dog came with it's nose, eyes and ears in a bag.
Max spent some time trying to figure out how he could both sit and use his hands for grabbing. While able to now hold himself up for short periods, he will usually end up either listing to the side or in a clothespin position.
The effort was exhausting.
A present break came at lunchtime. Back in Jersey, the only restaurants that are open on Christmas are Chinese. Out here, we headed for a Thai buffet.
Then, a return to the gifts. Wholly embracing the consumer side of Christmas, Kears and Todd sent Maddie down a mini shopping cart. Their Maya received an identical one with food to go in it, and a cash register for the "supermarket." Maya has begun referring to herself at the cash register as "the man" (it came from Kears telling Maya at the real supermarket to "give the money to the man" - the end result speaks for itself).
Next, a talking book from Great Aunt Renee and Great Uncle Chris.
Max got to enjoy a minute or two with some stacking toys from Maya and a truck from Mimi and Dzedo, before his sister saw he was enjoying them and decided to enjoy them herself.
Aunt Kerry sent Maddie a stuffed pig, something her cousin, Gwen, has recently chosen as her lovey. Maddie seemed drawn to it with the same ferver. Coincidentally, Auntie Kerri also sent Maddie a book about a pig who shares some personality traits with our girl.
Then followed some stickers from Aunt Tara and Uncle Ant. As Maddie could not reach her bellybutton (her shirt is a onesie), she stacked an entire page on her hand.
It was then that Sam decided Max was now old enough to start walking.
A traditional chicken paprikash and homemade spaetzle Christmas dinner (traditional in that we are creating our own traditions, and Sam liked it so much at Great Grandma's, he requested it again).
Before bed, the family took a walk to look at the neighborhood homes' displays, as neighborhood goes nuts at Christmas. Sam and Jess noticed a slow moving van going very slowly down the street. As they rounded the block, the same van came cruising slowly down the next street. After some discussion of writing down the license number, they began to notice that there was another slow moving car coming down the block, and then another. Apparently the neighborhood is so done up, people drive by slowly in their cars just to enjoy as well.
After the kids went to bed, Sam and Jess cracked open a bottle of wine they had bought about 4 years ago. It was from a wine tasting trip that they had taken just about when they began to think of starting their family. The bottle of wine is Buttonwood 2004 The Infant.
But not at this moment. Sam began to learn how to use a new lens he got for his birthday. It appears to have the power to show that Maddie can throw a temper tantrum that breaks the time/space continuum. 
Back to the package - it arrived from Mimi and Dzedo meant for Christmas Eve. In it there were Christmas socks, or in Maddie's world, elegant gloves.
It also contained rolls of Christmas cookie dough to slice-n-bake so that the house would smell festive.
And a stuffed turkey for dinner.
After dinner, Sam made cinnamon rolls - something he remembers Taisie getting on Christmas morning, and something that will be part of the Kender-Page Christmas tradition as well.
The top of the tree was dressed with the sock snowman - a gift from Uncle Wills when he was 8 years old. It topped the first K-P tree, and now the second, years later.
The stockings from Mimi were hung by the monitor with care. We'd see if St. Nick could make it through the internet tubes to soon be there.
It was a good birthday. Presents and french toast in the morning.
Followed by very cool flowers from K-Dub and Eric.
Then a lunch at gingergrass where Maddie and Dad shared a common love for shrimp chips.
With such a good day behind her, what could make things take such a terrible turn for the worse?
Apparently the idea of fire on a cake was incredibly distressing.
The cake, however - a Page family tradition, yellow with chocolate chip icing - was well received, and based on Maddie's positive response, it looks like the tradition will carry on through another generation.
So far, only the lights have been up on the tree. Maddie had seen trees decorated at the library, so she had some idea of what to do when she was handed a container full of plastic balls. First, take each ball out, and jargon excitedly.
Next, show Dad where to put the each ball since they don't seem to stay there when you place them in the tree.
Finally, supervise Dad's placement, making sure none get above the height you can pat-pat them. Please note, the rest of the day, the tree remained dressed from about 2'-9" and below.
With cool ornaments like these Maddie and Max ones from Taisie.
As we went through the different boxes full of presents from family and friends, Maddie was also allowed to open one Christmas gift from Kears and Todd (it's hard to be almost 2 and wait until this "Christmas" thing). Meant for Max, she made sure all the puzzle pieces were working. They were.
After the kids went to bed, Sam and Jess finished decorating the tree, and as the lights went out for bed, it really began to feel like Christmas in LA.