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 🙂

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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!

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Big Ol’ Catching Up Post

Oh, good grief!  The holidays are upon us.  I’m supposed to be at a Lab School social this evening but SIX (!) families backed out at the last minute and the party was canceled.  I feel really bad for the hostess who spent her entire day cleaning, chilling beer and making pumpkin mousse.  She called me 40 minutes before it was supposed to start to tell me that she was throwing in the towel.  I had just plugged in my flatiron in preparation for getting sassy.  Alas, no flatiron was required for Plan B which consisted of sitting down in front of the television with Panera take-out.  It’s pretty darn inconsiderate to bail on the day of the event, don’t you think? Looks like I’m freezing my sausage balls for Christmas brunch (that sounds kind of dirty…).  Sausage balls is the appetizer I made to take with us to the social.  Anyway, the cancellation is the only reason that I have time to devote to the blog.

I think I need a list for all the stuff I’m going to unload on you.  Be prepared to be visually stimulated by all the photos as well.

1.  We hosted our family’s December birthday party on the 6th.  Wildman and Auntie Jo were the honorees.

J grilled cheeseburgers.  We talked, we ate, presents were opened, candles were extinguished…  It was a good time.

Wildman now has a ton of Hot Wheels cars and play sets.  His actual birthday isn’t until December 21st.  I can only imagine what his true birthday and Christmas will bring.  I think I need to start donating toys and stocking up on plastic storage totes now!

2. 

This is the newest addition to the family exterior Christmas display.  Wildman and Cutie Pie were drooling over this thing in Lowe’s.  J happened to find it for 50% off a couple of weeks ago and quickly purchased it.  The boys LOVE it!!!  Wildman quickly discovered that he could not ride on the tractor.  Darn inflatables and their lack of rigidity.

3.  This is our house.  Kindly ignore the strand of lights that are out on the top of the house…

This is Dude’s house.

Dude is Auntie Jo’s boyfriend.  He begins set up around Halloween!  Not too bad for a Jewish kid, eh?

We took the boys to Dude’s house to drop off their letters to Santa last week.  Santa (Dude) personally writes a letter back to each child who puts a letter in the mailbox.  How sweet is that?!  Auntie Jo definitely has a keeper.

Cutie Pie was mesmerized by the animatronic display in the garage.

4.

Okay, so, I did get that margarita on the rocks after all.  We just took the kids with us.  It turns out that our babysitters who are always at the ready, i.e. J’s parents, actually had plans last Saturday night.  We didn’t realize that they were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary until Sunday, however.  What?!  Why didn’t they tell us?!  That’s a whole other post…

Anyway, we took the kids out for Mexican and then to the Melbourne Light Parade.  Ahhhh, the spinach enchiladas were amazing!

5. 

I made a batch of green play dough for Wildman’s classmates.  They had their book exchange and cookie decorating party today.  I slipped these little treats into their cubbies when no one was looking 🙂

6.  Speaking of cookie decorating…

These little elves got together yesterday afternoon to decorate a bunch of sugar cookies.

I invited Steph and Big Red over for homemade pizza and a Christmas flick after the cookies were done.  It made for a nice evening.  We haven’t had just their family over for a dinner party since their youngest was born.  That’s been over two years ago!

7.  I’m a crafting maniac these days…  Check out some of the presents I’ve been working on.

I can’t show Aileen‘s surprise gift because she reads my blog and views my flickr photos.  I supposed she could sneak a peak into the adorable snowman suitcase I gave her to find out what hers looks like.  But I know she’s not that kind of girl and I’m not ruining the surprise for her here either.

I think that’s pretty much all the catching up I need to do.  I feel much better!  If you’ve made it to the end of this post without blurred vision or dizziness, you get a gold star.  Well done!