Christmas Morning 2010!

It's Christmas Time! So this is the morning that the kids so "patiently" await. Our Christmas trees on that sacred morning. Just waiting for some little person to run down stairs and terrorize them.

Emily, the first one up this year. We have a standing rule, the same rule I had as a kid actually. You can get up at whatever ungodly hour you chose, but you can't wake mom and dad until you see the sun at least approaching and until everyone is up all you can have are your stockings....hung by the fire with care. So there is Emi, all 7 years of her, playing with a very small Lego Christmas tree she discovered in her stocking.

The completed project.

Aren't they just the sweetest? They waited so patiently for Abi to finally get up. Geez, even Travis and I were getting anxious.

Sleeping beauty. I guess all the partying the night before wore her out...

So this is Christmas morning at home. Just one of the many rounds of celebrating we are lucky enough to get to be involved in. It was a great start to what was a great day! The kids were thrilled with the gifts Santa brought them. Emi got Magic Fabric. Billy got a spaceship and Squish got a pink computer or if you were to ask her, a "pink cumapuha" among other things.

Christmas Eve 2010!

Christmas Eve 2010. I can hardly believe another year has essentially come and gone....

On our way out the door to the annual Christmas Eve party at Bill and Bette's, I tried to get a picture of all three kids in the same photo sorta looking the same direction, but it never works. This was as close as I got before herding them into the car and rolling off.
We had a great time as always and the food was just as yummy as always. We had what has become Bill's famous green chile. Even I love it and anyone who knows me knows I do not care for anything soupy, stew-y or otherwise mixed up, but I do...I love it! Everyone with the exception of Ashley and her new husband made it. Which leads me to why there are no pictures of the kids really. They all take off as soon as we walk in the door.

All in the FAMILY.

now off to sleep tight in their beds...

Happy Birthday Daddy-O!

Travis turned 37 years old this December... We celebrated Daddy's birthday with dinner of his choice. He wanted crab legs (gross, plus that is WAY beyond my meager means) so we had pan seared cod in a garlic butter bacon sauce instead. It was super low calorie, but pretty good none-the-less. After dinner we went out front and lit sparklers. (More my choice than his, but marriage is about compromise. Right? )

All of the pictures are of Billy because, really he is the only kid we have that is not immediately concerned with burning flesh or retinas. Emily kept a boringly safe distance and Abi at least entertained the thought, for a second. I love how the old school metal sparklers look like snowflakes. Perfect for a winter celebration!

Happy Birthday Travis!

Christmas Cookies!

Christmas Cookie Time! Love, love Christmas cookie time! It is entirely possible I got a little carried away with this years cookie production line, but can you blame me? Look at how adorable my helpers were and as an added bonus it was actually a blustery winter-ish day outside. For the record though, my little helpers cookies went straight from their floury hands to their own mouths. Just as a disclaimer. I would never deliver Abi's "naked" cookies as gifts!

They made really darling cookies! I happened across a new cookie dough recipe thanks to my Internet idol, The Pioneer Woman. She hosted a baking weekend at her home and the guest baker was Bakeat350.com. Her vanilla almond cookie recipe is so amazingly good.... reminded me of cookies from when I was about the size of them...

Ellie and her creations.

Nearly naked Abi and her creations.

And time to eat! Later that afternoon when the big kids came home they each got to decorate cookies too, but I totally dropped the ball on documenting the occasion. That means later in life Emily will certainly call me out on not including her just because I am lacking the photographic proof. I am just sure of it.

Remember that comment earlier about getting carried away? Just sayin'. For posterity here is a list of the 2010 cookies:

Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookies

Oreo Yummies (thanks a TON for that one Merritt)

Rum Balls

Peppermint Oreos

Chewy Gingerbread Men

Chocolate Peanut-butter Surprises

Sugared Cranberries

and the ever famous - Chocolate Peanut-butter Sandwich Cookies I shamelessly stole from Erin!
Merry Christmas!

Hanzel & Gretel 2010

Happy Gingerbread Birthday... to me! I used to say that I didn't think we had any family traditions. I realize more and more, because of this blog I think, that I could not have been more wrong. Things very much repeat in my world. It's great and I love that it is becoming clear to me that we very much do have family traditions. For example, we eat mud pie on Travis' birthday every year regardless of how full from dinner we are and now I see we construct a Gingerbread House on mine. So, may I present the 2010 model....

HA! Me, no just kidding a slightly blurry over exposed picture is a fine way to document that it is my 33rd birthday and I am aware of it. However, I still freak out whenever a camera gets pointed my direction. Moving on...there is serious business to be done.

A perfect birthday tradition to share with my kids FOREVER. Something my mom and dad started years ago that I sort of last track of and rediscovered.