Christmas Cheer

What a joyous time of year! With no extended family in town, we had some pretty quiet, but still fun! days. We miss you grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins!!!! On Christmas Eve, we had some friends over for dinner. It was fun to light some floating candles, eat hot soup and homemade bread and go "seeking baby Jesus" together.
Christmas day, our oven/stovetop died! Argh! Forget about the gooey orange rolls and all-things-holiday that we were going to bake and make. Instead, we plugged in our electric skillet and Mike made "cheetsfata" a Hungarian breakfast dish he grew up eating on Christmas day. Christmas dinner was eggs and toast. Memorable. :)

Daddy gave Quinn a drill, flashlight and protective eyewear and he was so excited!! He kept asking me to watch him, he was going to "drill now". Look closely and you'll see the little "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" characters that Aunt Connie and Uncle Ty gave the twins this year. We had a good laugh when the wrapping paper came of these little blue-haired Dr. Suess wonders!

The Jump-O-Lene!! Mike worked the foot pump all morning to blow this baby up.

After naps on Christmas Day, we decided to go ice skating at a local outdoor rink. It was 19 degrees and a bit breezy, but we all really enojoyed our 50 minutes of outside winter time.

I couldn't find my ice skates (I think I left them in my parent's garage!), so we all practiced skating in our boots. When we get real ice skates, we're going to be amazing skaters. Quinn liked the idea of keeping our boots on because he told me the ice was "too slippery, Ma. That's going to be dangerous".

Here I am taking a break from kitchen work to model a few of my Christmas gifts. Nice hot pink dish gloves from Mike, a darling new handbag made by the very talented Lindsay, my new Sharpie Pen (I love pens!), a great necklace from my mother-in-law, and a very good read: 52 Weeks of Proven Recpies for Picky Kids, also from my in-laws. What a great year for me!

Mike and the kids made gingerbread cookies. The dough was made and rolled out when Mike went a'hunting for the gingerbread-man cookie cutter. Alas, we have no such cutter. So, they made gingerbread "snowballs" (lots of round cookies) and a few Christmas trees (the one holiday cookie cutter we own). As you can see in the photos, they loved this tasty project. Quinn was so focused, I couldn't even get him to look at the camera.

When I told Mae to smile.....................What a hoot!


Isn't she sweet?!

And the final photo---Max, playing with one of our new dress-up hats. YES! What a cool little dude!
I have to be mushy for one second and say how much I love my children and husband. Life is wonderful. It's a wonderful life. :)

Gingerbread House Party!

I have been looking forward to decorating gingerbread houses all month! My friend, Sarah Ann, invited us over on Saturday and the fun began. Yummy gingerbread, sweet, sweet frosting (my favorite part), oodles and oodles of candy, this should be done monthly, not just at Christmastime!

Check out Mike's awesome house with yard. We made one house to eat and one to give away. This prized-piece was the give away. It looks like this house might get a little chilly on a cold MN night, with the nice "breezeway" going through the middle/top of the house. All good gingerbread houses have LOTS of character. :)

A garden and a koi pond?? When can I move in?!

Can the holidays get better than this?
I submit that they cannot!

And one of the kids all dressed up for the Sunday before Christmas. I love these three! Too cute.

Hope your holiday is sweet!

minus the photos

I am a picture blogger. I only post with pictures. I am not clever enough to capture ones attention with prose alone. But, we've had a little accident. Our beloved digital camera was found, on the kitchen counter, front panel popped off (obviously dropped onto the tile), 1/2 of a sticky kiwi fruit glued to the shutter, dripping sour green juices onto its lovely silver frame. I have high hopes for our dear camera. She's smart and snappy. :) She'll pull through. Until then, please envision us at our best; always clean and well-behaved, giggling and laughing all the while, the house spot-less, the Christmas tree glorious, and the husband home every evening, spending many precious and tender moments together as a family. Ahhh, that even warms my heart.