Christmas 2011

We had a very good Christmas this year.  Mostly quiet and lots of quality play time.  The kids tried to change up Christmas lists Christmas Eve, but they seemed to really enjoy the toys that they received and haven't mentioned the ones that they tried to change up for.  They played all day with their toys and are still playing with them.  I put together a slide show of pictures, but sadly it has taken me a week to save it!  The website was down and every time I tried to save it, the thing crashed.  Finally this morning I saved it!  So, FINALLY I am posting this. 
We decided this year to do a standing rib roast.  Not only was it super easy and fast, it was very good.  I think it was a nice "light" dinner compared to Thanksgiving, which is nice because who wants to slave in the kitchen when there are Legos and new toys to play with!  
It was a good Christmas for all, we hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2011 - Free Slideshow Maker

Preparing

The time is here, to prepare for Christmas, and we are almost ready. Breakfast is made, cake is cooling, presents are being wrapped. 

But, I've been told it is time to get ready for Church.  So, I guess it is time to get the kids in from outside and find out what fits. 

The kids are excited and a little crazed today.  I guess that is to be expected on Christmas Eve, isn't it?

Who wants to take bets that Nate will fall asleep on the way to Church? 

That should make a for a fun evening! 

Oh, I almost forgot, the shrimp is thawing!  YUM!  Still have to pick up some bread though.  I would have made some, but Mom said it was too much work! 

Hope everyone is having a fabulous holiday season! 

Happy Christmas Eve! 

Christmas cookies

This weekend, in my utter craziness, I decided that our Mother's group should host a Cookie Decorating party for the kids of our Church.  Fortunately, everyone I talked to was on board!  A couple Mothers and I got together Friday night and made 10 batches of cookies, which translated to over 600 cookies!  We had about 35 kids RSVP, but you never know, and we might have just been making batches, throwing them into the fridge and then we counted and realized we had 10 batches!  We used the Church kitchen and had a great time.  Thank goodness for the convection ovens and my friends who so graciously stayed late to help, we couldn't have done it without them! 
The next morning we made some frosting, laid out the cookies and said get to it kids! 

I forgot to figure on the little kids and their love of frosting and sprinkles, many of the cookies were towering with frosting and sprinkles, which would be cool if the kids were just making these for themselves, but we decided to have them make some and donate some for the home-bound parishioners. 

 We decided to use royal icing and put it in plastic bags and cut out an end for them to squeeze onto the cookies, we had the kids bring their own sprinkles.  The bags worked well, for the most part.  We had a couple that split when we were trying to push down the icing and we had a couple that came out the zip part. But, we had no complaints and some kids stood there for the whole time just making cookies, I was impressed.

Everyone told us how great of an idea this was, and how much they loved it.  How well organized it was and all that, which was slightly hilarious, because we didn't do anything to organize it, really, just made cookies and frosting.  We also had the kids decorate bags and make cards for the home-bound.  They did such a great job and it was such a fabulous way to spread some cheer. 

I hope that the home-bound all get their bags and cards, the kids sure had fun doing it! 

It made for an exhausting couple of days, but well worth it! 

Thanksgiving

I may or may not have mentioned that Thanksgiving was not our best day, Eric has been fighting some mysterious illness for almost 2 weeks now.  He is on the mend, after I demanded he go to the Doctor.  He is at least able to participate in family time.  And, I think that he is finally able to sleep well, since prescribed a cough syrup!  Thanksgiving seemed to be just another day around here, except, I worked really hard to make a dinner, that basically only I ate, sure the kids had some, but not much, and then I had to do all the dishes! 

We got some cute pictures of the kids though!

After dinner, while I was doing the dishes the kids played and Eric laid on the couch, pretty much his M.O. for the last several weeks, poor guy. 

Nate likes to wear the buckets on his head, he's a funny kind of a kid! 

Hope your turkey day was better than ours!