Christmas via Google+

So tonight we had a little Christmas party via Google+ with my family.  Being hundreds of miles away from my parents in Iowa and my sister and brother-in-law in Washington, we are regular skypers but recently started using Google+ thanks to my sister and her husband.  The big benefit here is video conferencing with multiple people...for free.  Tonight was the first conference call I'd used it for and it worked great!

The Monster already thinks many of his family members live inside the computer so it was nothing new to him.  It was pretty cool for us though to get to hang with everyone at once.

The biggest action of the night was getting to watch the Monster open his three presents.  The first was an Elmo since he absolutely loves Elmo on Sesame Street.  Elmo got a good response.

The second was an appropriately colored tractor from his great-grandmother in Iowa.  He could barely contain himself while III was trying to get the tractor loose from the box.

That one apparently deserved a closer look from the kinfolk.

The third present....oops.  Apparently my camera was shut off during the assembly of the third present.  Will have to wait for tomorrow for that one.  

All presents aside though, we had a good time tonight even if it was only over the internet.  It doesn't beat being there in person but it makes it a little bit easier to be so many miles apart.