Continuing the Christmas Recap

Hello, folks!  I’ve returned to the land of the living after getting slammed by a nasty stomach bug.  Cutie Pie got it too.  We were waylaid for a day and a half then the weekend hit…  We’ve been doing all sorts of fun things from a nighttime bon fire to a day’s worth of beach fishing.  Because what else are we going to do with all this freakishly warm weather we’re experiencing?!  I finally managed to run the boys out of here so I could clean and thought I’d catch up on my blog while my floors are drying from a much needed mopping.

Back to the Christmas recap!

Right!  So, the boys each had classroom Christmas parties on their last day of school before winter break.  Both parties were pajama-day events laden with sugary treats and fun games.

We hosted our annual dinner party with our friends on the Thursday evening before Christmas.  Big Red and his kids, B and her family and our across-the-street neighbors joined us for some good cheer and good food.

The children exchanged Christmas presents and wouldn’t you know it…  Big Red bought our kids and B’s kids whistles…  For some reason, J found the shrill, ear-splitting whistling uncontrollably funny.  I’ve hardly ever seen him laugh so hard.

 

We hosted a Christmas Eve dinner of crab legs and ginormous shrimp for our family before heading to candlelight service at Nana and Papa’s church (the church where J and I got married).

After church the boy’s slipped into their pajamas then headed outside to spread a little reindeer food on the lawn.  Then they came back inside to prepare a plate cookies and a glass of egg nog (with nutmeg, of course) for Santa.  There were carrots for the reindeer too.  It was hard to get them to finally go to bed for the night but somehow we managed!

Now, you’re not going to believe this after my two-post holiday season recap, but I did not take a single photo on Christmas Day!  Unbelievable…  It was a day filled with family, friends, good food and presents.

(Insert Norman Rockwell scene here)  🙂

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Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a pretty busy day as I imagine it is for most people.  I spent the morning battling the crowds at Walmart and the grocery store for some last minute Christmas day supplies.  I came home and tossed a salad together for dinner that evening with Yaya, whipped up a quick casserole for the morning then set out to make sugar cookies with the cousins.  Making and decorating sugar cookies is an annual tradition that slipped until Christmas Eve this year.  Normally we try to make them a week or so before Christmas but ran out of time.

Of course, the boys loved creating crazy confections with the red, green and white icing.  It was like they were competing to see who could pile the most sprinkles on their cookies.  I hope it’s one of those childhood memories they will always remember.

Santa had quite a selection of lovely cookies to choose from on Christmas morning!  The highlight for me was not having to clean ground sugar cookies and sprinkles out of my carpet.  Big Red graciously took the hit this year 🙂

*****

My mom invited us over to have baked ziti at her house for Christmas Eve dinner.  The boys both passed out on the 5-minute car ride over to Yaya’s house.  They woke back up after J carried them inside.  I think the excitement of the holidays had caught up with them.  We had a nice time together opening a few presents, sipping some good wine and watching Christmas specials on television. After dinner we piled into our car and took a spin around town looking a Christmas lights.

We dropped my mom back off at her house then headed home to give the boys baths and make Santa preparations.  The boys each received a packet of reindeer food from their teachers.

As soon as they donned their new sock monkey jammies we all raced outside to spread the oatmeal/birdseed/glitter mix around the yard and driveway.

The last task of the night was preparing the snacks for Santa and his reindeer.  The boys were excited to  prepare the carrots, cookies and milk!

Once all the snacks were laid out on the table J and I ushered the kiddos off to bed.  Our work as Santa’s helpers had not even begun and it was well past 10 PM!

Cookie Decorating

This is what went down at our cousin’s house this morning:

Spray icing stuff really creates a fog! Do you see that haze?! It’s probably not good to inhale the stuff. I say that as an afterthought, of course.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!