For Three Days Straight.

The day after Christmas we packed into the car and made our way to my sister's house so we could celebrate with my mom.  We were totally Christmas'd out by this point so I had to remind myself that yes this was our fourth party, but it was her first. 

While my sister slaved in the kitchen, I sat in a chair and took pictures because I was still tired from watching Jon slave in the kitchen the day before.  My mom and Jon had a hell of a time trying to get the Polly Pocket clothes on the little people because their skimpy little dresses do not fit their curvy little bodies.  I will refrain from posting Jon's picture putting a pink dress on the Polly Pockets because he looks like he's having fun...creeper.

Even though my kids got a load of toys at their own house, nothing could be as fun as the toys belonging to somebody else, right?  Soon enough it was time to eat and instead of a traditional ham or turkey we decided on fried chicken (the day before with dad) and steak for our party with mom.  We like to mix it up. 

After dinner (and dessert) the kids played Santa and passed out gifts to all the wrong people so I followed behind them and re-arranged.  A few of the kids were giving the side eye to Haylee's pile like "how's this chick rate?"  My mom had gotten her a doll house and then wrapped all the furniture separately so it looked like she had a ton more.  Kids don't understand dollar amounts, they understand two vs. four.

Ryan got the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine and some fuzzy pajamas which he immediately dropped his drawers to put on.  Since Monday they have been playing with those two toys...in reverse order.  He's playing with the house and she's pushing around the scooby van!

After we opened gifts, I took some videos of the kids including this one of the hula hoop contest.  How we came up with this idea is beyond me!  What a bunch of hams...

Oh and my gift...mom asked us to pick out one thing we really wanted the most so I asked for a cross necklace because I haven't had a nice one in about ten years.  I think she did a really good job picking it out!

 

Her choice in necklaces was alot better than one of the beads I bought for her bracelet which was the birthstone for October and her birthday is in September!  Um...MY birthday is in October so I'm sorry mom but the thought was there, right?

A Magic Ingredient.

I have always been known for my lack of cooking, baking and crafting skills.  My grandma was awesome when it came to all three and she tried her best, but it just didn't stick with me...my sister Betty is another story.  In the year after I was married I asked her to hand write a book of recipes for me and I never appreciated that book as much as I did this Christmas.

When I pulled it from the cupboard and stood on the chair reading and sobbing, Jon had to walk away with tears in his own eyes.  The last line on the first page where she told me to "treat myself to the memories made by baking" touched me the most.  My grandma was notorious for her holiday baking so I pulled that book down to make something in her honor.

She called them magic cookie bars and they were the one thing we could always count on getting at her house on Christmas.  I set my mind to making them for the party at my sister's so I lit a candle in the kitchen, turned on some Christmas music and in the silence of the house I concentrated on the words and tried to do everything perfectly.

I had to laugh as I flipped through the pages because I think she copied down only the easiest of the easy recipes and she would write little encouraging words like "this one is REALLY easy" as she knew I couldn't boil an egg.

One of her instructions said that if there was an ingredient in a recipe that I didn't like, it was okay to substitute for something similar.  So instead of using milk chocolate chips, I used the peanut butter and milk chocolate mix.  I stood by the stove and checked those bars every minute as the timer got close so I didn't burn them!

They turned out a perfect golden brown which made me very excited and proud but the next day when people started biting into my holiday goodness, they began to make faces and ask what ingredient they were tasting!  I knew they would soon guess it was the peanut butter chips.

But then they looked puzzled and when Jon said it tasted very strongly of cinnamon I remembered that I didn't have regular graham crackers in the cupboard for the crust, so I "substituted" with cinnamon graham crackers like I was instructed!  When I said those words out loud and added that I thought cinnamon and sugar would have tasted good in the crust, they broke out in laughter that brought them to tears.

Magic cookie bar fail.

So needless to say grandma tried and even from Heaven with step-by-step instructions I mucked up her traditional magic cookie bars with the authority she gave me to substitute...so I'll take 1/2 the blame and think about all the pointing and laughing the next time I decide to try my hand at baking.

Dad Made It Another Year.

On Christmas Eve I left Ryan's room with tears running down my face because he had been so unbelievably naughty that night so while I was tucking him in I asked how he would feel if he got up in the morning and found that Santa didn't come for him.  I was surprised by his response which was "I will be happy that Nonna gave me some presents today."  Oh damn child, I was trying to guilt you not the other way around!

On Christmas morning I got up and lit the tree, turned on the Christmas music and started walking back to my bed when I heard his feet hit the floor so I quickly jumped in and pretended I was sleeping.  He came in and told us that Santa in fact had been here but only for Haylee!  If you'll notice in the picture above I had to awkwardly shaped items for Haylee I did not wrap, but he had nothing unwrapped!  So this boy was sweating bullets...and I honestly didn't do that on purpose!

Jon tried to be quick on his feet and keep the child's heart from breaking so he told Ryan that when he came in from a fire call in the middle of the night Santa told him there were three different colors of wrapping paper for all three kids.  We quickly rebuttled with "nobody sees Santa!" and then Jon changed the story to Santa just spoke to him, but he never really saw him?  Mmmmmkkkkk.  Did he whisper from the chimney?  Did he send Jon a text message?

Before we woke up Haylee Jon made sure to give me my gift first, which was a new camera!  I only use mine every single day of the week so a two year run was a good one for my old point and shoot.  He got me the same brand and style (Canon Powershot) and I would have to say my photos are much clearer now.

While I was doing my Christmas shopping I kept all the kids gifts on a spreadsheet and spent $200 on average for each which I felt was a ton of money but when everything was wrapped under the tree they only had like four-ish things each...which I thought looked small?  But nobody had complaints so I guess that was all in my head.

Around lunch time my dad, sister and David showed up.  We weren't allowed to have David on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning according to his beast of a mother but I could go on for days about that.  Unfortunately he arrived after we already had a house full so he had to open our gifts during the group party.

The littles wouldn't cooperate for the attempted group picture so I just told them to make their funniest face which obviously meant pull down your eyelid(s)?  My dad, sister and I on the other hand had one take which turned out just perfect in my humble opinion.

I am very thankful that I have husband who likes to do the cooking during parties because I can barely squeak out a decent taco dinner.  He found a recipe online from the Food Network for a buttermilk fried chicken so he borrowed the neighbor's fryer and slung chicken in the front yard.

Yeah, the snow is gone already.  Never have I remembered a year without snow for Christmas and let me tell you, it's disappointing.

Jon also came up with the idea to bring in the kid's picnic table.  Damn he was on the ball yesterday!

At one point I had to tell my sister that I was really sorry but I was finding mad humor in the fact that her daughter was being so naughty.  She was squealing (and shedding tears) over the fact that NOBODY GAVE HER A SPOON! and it was such a dramatic cry out for a spoon too.  Even funnier to me was editing the photo and noticing the s-p-o-o-n that was once right next to her plate!

Right as we started eating the neighbor called Jon to say they had left for their Christmas party over an hour away and forgot their bowl of strawberry fluff, so if we wanted it...it was ours for the taking.  Merry Christmas to us because it was good!

After dinner we made our way to the living room where my father continued to teach the children things like sticking silly putty to the wall and watching it stretch down like a big booger.  Ah, the things he teaches our poor impressionable children...

On to the presents.

Aunt Steph made her this awesome scarf!

Pop right from the kitchen sink?  Just what he needs!

 Optimus Prime Transformer? He nearly died.

He literally did a break dance move on his new sled.

After all of the hoopla was over we let the kids play and we visited.  Dad and B.J. tried to teach David how to whip around his new fly fishing pole but they said he's still doing it wrong...thank goodness we also bought him a 4-hour class to teach him how to do it!  (A $150 course I got through Groupon for $25 - woot! woot!)

We read books.

We played Operation (which is nothing like the one we had growing up).

We raked through Barbie's mop.

And taught the kids how to make those little circle shapey things, but I can't remember what they are called. 

Did I mention Jon did a bang up job bringing our party together?  So I went ahead and let him have that two and a half hour nap after everyone left...even though the kids didn't sleep a wink.  And cried the whole time because they were tired.  And I had baking to do for my mom's party today.  And I had to clean up the house because it was was a disaster area.

Merry Christmas!

She's a Diesel Fitter.

For as long as I have been a part of Jon's family we have always celebrated on Christmas Eve.  No matter when everyone else planned a party, Jon was adamant that we always have dinner at his parents house on Christmas Eve.  So this year when my sister-in-law said her family was coming to town and we were going to switch things up, Jon's panties got in a bunch.

We decided to break tradition and instead of having dinner on Christmas Eve, we would have breakfast...and now that the day is over I would have to say that I very much liked the change!  Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day anyway, but it was also nice to just sit around sipping orange juice mimosa's and watching the kids play with their gifts all laid back like, because they were well rested.

 
And the icing on my cake was the fact that overnight we had SNOW.  It is December 24th and we are finally getting a little snow for Christmas?  I was wishin' and hopin' and prayin' for some - just enough to make it pretty and this is what I saw when I looked out my basement window this morning.  Making my Christmas lights look all glowy and my heart all puffy.

Jon's dad made an awesome breakfast with all the extras, like blueberry muffin bread and hot cinnamon rolls.  Just like at Thanksgiving we got out all the nice china glasses for clinking (which Haylee is in love with doing) but then I was taken back to my childhood when they broke out the good plastic plates, just like mom used to for a holiday dinner.

We took some pictures of the kids by the tree before opening presents, they of course cooperated half-assed because SpongeBob Squarepants was on TV in the background and that is the only thing they were thinking about looking at.

And then the opening ensued.

Aunt Heather and Uncle Brian got Haylee this interactive cat which has totally freaked out everyone in the family.  It's like motion sensored and it will just turn it's head and look at you, raise it's paw to bat in your direction, meow...FREAKY, and I might lose the batteries out of it?

David nearly wet his pants every single gift he opened as if it were the number one on his list. Here he is literally screaming over a box of modeling clay.  But when it comes to his crafts, I guess Nonna knows him best.

This little punk on the other hand spent the rest of his morning getting himself into trouble with a Nerf gun.  Nobody should ever buy the naughty boy a gun because he's only going to get naughty'er with it.

I did however find it hard to believe that I actually caught a picture of a bullet mid-air!  What are the chances of that with a little point and shoot camera?

While the kids played the rest of us relaxed and made jokes....mostly about Jon's mother being a diesel fitter.  I swear every piece of clothing she buys for our kids is like one year ahead of where they are now (if we're lucky because sometimes it's two or three).  Walt says she just holds up something and says "oh yeah deeswillfitter" and throws it in the cart.   Today it was a pair of tights that went from the floor to Haylee's head.  Maybe next year on those?

The adults exchanged a few gifts, including this apron we got for Jon's dad with an inside joke embroidered across the front. 

By about noon the kids were ready to go back home and get a nap.  We had been up early, filled our bellies and played games so they were starting to turn cranky and plus Jon had lots of food to get prepped for Christmas Eve dinner.

Of course no visit at Nonna's would be complete without dancing.  She and Haylee did some booty shaking and some slow dancing....it's their favorite past time. 

Now I'm not sure about Jon but I'm thinking Christmas Eve breakfast could be a new tradition?

My Son the Rock Star.

Ryan attends the 4-5 year old class at church so finally this year he was able to sing in the Christmas program!  They practiced their songs for a few weeks and also painted luminaries (which they will hold during our Christmas Eve service).  I thought I would upload a video for his grandparents who might like to see him rocking it out.  Or not rocking it out.

For as outgoing as he is, this child looked as though he was absolutely distressed on stage!  He kept his hands folded so neatly and he had such a serious face.  He does throw out a few of the words so I'm super proud of him!  There were a few kids who sat down or wouldn't go up on the stage, so in my eyes he was awesome!  Wouldn't you know as soon as they started entering I began bawling like a baby...I couldn't even see my child for the first three minutes.

P.S. Mom I keep forgetting to tell you that I've noticed Sally Headley at my church the past few months, she is married to an older man and really has fixed herself up since the "old Sally days".  That is her granddaughter in the red dress next to Ryan.