Christmas Day 2011

Christmas morning - I heard the pitter patter of footsteps and knew that Evan and Mackenzie would soon be running down to the basement to crawl in bed with us - they're both pretty good snugglers!!! Both were excited that Santa had come and the cookies and milk were gone!!

By 9:00, the Smith's and the Savage's had arrived and it was time for our fruit and dip and the best cinnamon rolls around (made by none other than Jessi!!) Stockings came next from Santa for all the kids and it was fun to watch their faces as they opened each little gift!!

And then the REAL fun started as the presents were passed out!! Once again, we did the CHRISTMAS chair - whatever child was opening had to sit in the chair and it worked out well!! Was it loud and noisy and chaotic???? Absolutely!! But that's 1/2 the fun when you have little ones around!!

Egg bake and sausage casserole were next along with toasted cinnamon bread and coffee!! How were we ever going to eat lunch after all this breakfast food???

Jill had my name this year and I received new black fashion boots, a black sweater and a new mouse pad for work with the kids pictures on it!! Glenn got me a new computer bag for travelling and a coffee canister for work!! One of the things on my Christmas list was a FLAT bottomed coffee cup - I have one of those coffee warmers that sits on my desk but unless the coffee cup is perfectly flat, it doesn't warm the entire cup!! I think Jill searched every store around for a coffee cup that was flat on the bottom but to no avail - so I opened a gift from Glenn and it was a large coffee mug that he has promised to grind off to make flat!!! Surprisingly enough, when Jaime, Jessi and I went to Caribou Coffee on Monday while we were shopping, there was a glass mug for sale and sure enough, it was flat on the bottom - yes, I bought it!!

Lunch was our big meal of the day since Gary had to leave for work in the afternoon - ham, elk roast, hash brown casserole, crunchy coleslaw, baked beans and pumpkin bread along with mom's punch was on the menu!! YUM!!! And of course more turtle cheesecake and peppermint dessert that Jessi had made!!

Luckily, most of the kids napped in the afternoon and the women did their sock exchange!! We laughed and laughed at the gifts since there was one particular gift that each woman needed to end up with and that's exactly how it happened!!! HOW PERFECT!!!

We had picked up Papa Murphy's pizza the day before for our evening Christmas meal - of the 3 we ordered, we hardly made a dent in the second one and the third one was untouched!! Guess we'll just go for 2 pizzas next year!! Jessi had some major cheese strings going on in this next picture!!

All in all, one perfect Christmas!! Just being together for the holidays is enough for me!!