Hi All! We had a great Christmas this year! We started the holiday with a brunch at our house with Mike's Mom and Dad. It was great! I made a baked french toast and a cheesy ham and potato casserole that was soooo delicious we all loved itI will definitely make that again! After we ate we let the kids open their gifts and all in all it was a very nice visit.
The week continued with a lot of baking, cooking, wrapping, and planning. Well, for me at least. Mike did help wrap the gifts which was a huge help but I'm afraid I was on my own for the rest. This year I made homemade iced sugar cookies... they were beautiful! They were shaped like snowflakes and dipped in blue icing with white snowflake decoration on them. They were yummy! I also made peppermint bark, toffee, and peanut butter balls. I love all the holiday baking and candy making. I didn't get a picture of all the goodies but I will say I had to make two batches of toffee and about 4 batches of peppermint bark because it kept disappearing faster than I could make it! No worry though because I think I burned all the calories I ate making it!
On Christmas Eve Grandpa and Grandma Kathy came over for dinner. I made homemade Lasagna which was really good however this time I followed the recipe exactly and it called for ground beef. Usually I make it with sausage and I have to say sausage is better... but it was good anyway and we ate it up! I also made bruschetta which was FANTASTIC and so easy! Michael couldn't get enough of it! After dinner we opened presents and had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma. We also had a surprise phone call from Santa himself! Michael took the call and was taken a bit off guard. Our usual talkative young boy was stunned to silence and was for the first time since I've known him... SPEECHLESS! he did manage to let Santa know he was a good boy this year and that we had three kids in the house so Santa was prepared.
Grandpa spent the night with us and was there Christmas morning for presents and breakfast. The kids woke up and their eyes were bright when they saw all the goodies Santa left for them. We had a great time watching them open their presents. Michael was really happy because he got exactly what he wanted this year. A Nintendo DS. He has been asking for it for months now and he really earned it this year. I will say now that he is getting older Christmas is getting more expensive... we'll have to win the lottery by the time Allie turns 6 because I don't know how we'll pay for it all!
After breakfast Grandpa went back to his house and we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Howard's for dinner and more presents. It was tons of fun with Gramma, Joe, Aunt Lisa and Uncle David, and Aunt Linda. Grandpa Howard's mom Judy was also with us... she's a riot and I love conversation with her. We had beef tenderloin for dinner and I have to say it's getting better each year! Michael and Hayden got tons of gifts including a guitar which is so loud!!!
(Why do they have to make toys so loud? Who ever designs them must not be a parent...) and they got a really cool tent/tunnel set which also came with balls and a golf club to play games in it... again... golf clubs and kids... I will say that golf club made a spectacular sound as it hit Michael's head care of Hayden. So, the golf club is in the closet with the other weapon like toys and the guitar is banished to the play room with the threat of abduction if it leaves the room. 
Now that Christmas is over we are busy not being busy. We have been working on getting the house back in order and playing with all the new toys. In fact while I type this Mike is hanging a solar system in Michael's room. We have magic rocks, race tracks, cars, books, popcorn makers, and all sorts of fun stuff to play with!I hope you all had a Merry Holiday like we did. Even though the economy did affect how much we spent this year we had a great time and Christmas was awesome! Thank you to all of our friends and family who helped make our Chirstmas special!
