Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal Pat Mastin, of Carson City, hits a pitch off his grandson Tyler Van Roy, 13, on Christmas morning at a park in Northridge with his dog Charlie. Van Roy, of Silver Springs, received the bat as a Christmas gift.
Kody Hipple, 8, got a remote-control plane for Christmas. Taking advantage of the mild winter morning, he and his cousin Jacob Cremaeans, 9, took it to a neighborhood park to try it out.
It was a lesson Kody learned from his older brother, Randy Kagle, 18.
"When I was little, I got a little helicopter. I took it out in the back yard, and it was gone," he recalled. "I never found it. We weren't going to do that again."
Kagle and his uncle, Bruce Williford, 23, took the boys to the park to fly the plane in the open space, and to get the boys out of their grandma's house for a while.
"They can be annoying sometimes," Williford explained. "But other than that, they're great."
Throughout Carson City, children, teens and adults took to the streets and parks Tuesday to play with and show off their Christmas loot.
Pat Mastin, of Carson City, didn't mind that there was no snow.
"I don't miss it," he said. "I'd just have to shovel it. No, it's a nice sunny day."
His family was in town from Seattle, Wash., and Silver Springs to celebrate the holiday. He joined his son and grandsons in an impromptu game of baseball, trying out 13-year-old Tyler Van Roy's new bat.
"We're having a great day," Mastin said, after taking a turn at batting while still holding the leash to his Chihuahua, Charlie. "It's been one of our better Christmases. Last year, they were in California, so it got lonely."
While Tyler swung at pitches from his uncle Scott Kirk, his brother William Van Roy, 15, circled them, snapping photos.
Holding his "first nice camera," William was figuring out all the tricks.
"I need it for high school so I can take pictures," he said. "We've got a dance coming up so I'll be taking pictures of that."
A sophomore at Silver Stage High School, William said he plans to document his time there, "so in later years I can look back and say, 'I did that.' No regrets."
Twelve-year-old Kylie Gray was also hoping to turn her Christmas gift into lasting memories.
After opening presents at her mom's house, she went to her dad's and stepmom's to open gifts there.
One by one, she opened pieces of Fox racing gear. In the final box, she dug through mounds of tissue paper to find a picture of a Yamaha Raptor quadrunner. Attached to the photo was a note telling her to expect one in the future.
When she went into the kitchen to help prepare the food, her stepmom, Brandi Gray, handed her a set of keys and led her outside where the quadrunner was waiting.
"I screamed," she said, still smiling at the memory, and wearing the brown and turquoise riding gear.
Her dad, Lloyd Gray, and brother, Brandon, were starting it in the driveway in the late morning. The family cheered when it started.
They plan to take it out for a test drive in Fallon this weekend.
She's not sure what her exact plans are, but she does know she plans to "tear it up."
• Contact reporter Teri Vance at tvance@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1272.