Christmas in 20 pictures

1. Everyone was ready for Santa, even Fin.

2. We enjoyed Christmas Breakfast Casserole,

3. Breakfast Bread (a loaf each of brown sugar & pecan, and chocolate),

4. and fresh pears. Mmmmmmm.

5. There were light-up cups from Great Aunt Betty for Samantha...

6. Jeremy...

7. James...

8. and Madeline.

9. James got an electronic drum set (percussion with volume control--Santa's a genius!).

10. Samantha enjoyed monkey pajamas...

11. and tickles from her dad.

12. There were action figures for Jeremy,

13. a hand-knit scarf for Betty,

14. two santas in the house,

15. and four cousins!

16. Samantha watched old home movies with "the Gumps".

17. Helen and Mum reviewed pix while Rich waited patiently.

18. Thee was a staring contest,

19. cuteness,

20. and relaxation.

Creche: December 24

Christmas Eve BABY JESUS and WHY WE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

And here's our complete nativity scene:

Creche: December 23

1 Day to Christmas THE NIGHT WATCHMAN

Creche: December 22

2 Days to Christmas THE HEDGEHOG and THE CHRISTMAS ROSE

Creche: December 21

3 Days to Christmas THE DOVE

Creche: December 20

4 Days to Christmas THE LAMB

Creche: December 19

5 Days to Christmas THE INNKEEPER'S WIFE

Holiday Baking

It was about a year ago now that I started this little blog with a heavy emphasis on tasty foods. We posted lots of pictures of our baking adventures and since that is a family tradition, we simply have to blog about it again, too.

Here, once again, are our (Martha Stewart) Icebox Cookies.

For obvious reasons, we like to call them "Sushi Cookies":

We made several other variety of cookies (well...mostly I did) and much fun--and green sugar--was had by all:

Creche: December 18

6 Days To Christmas THE LITTLE GIRL

Creche: December 17

7 Days To Christmas THE SAD SHEPHERD

Creche: December 16

8 Days To Christmas THE YOUNG SHEPHERD

Creche: December 15

9 Days To Christmas THE OLD SHEPHERD

Creche: December 14

10 Days To Christmas THE OX

Creche: December 13

11 Days To Christmas THE CATTLE SHED

Creche: December 12

12 Days To Christmas THE CRIB

Creche: December 11

13 Days to Christmas THE PALM TREE

Creche: December 10

14 Days to Christmas MARY

Snow Day!!

This morning, James waited at the bus stop for a good 15 minutes before it occurred to us to check for school cancellations.

We knew a storm was headed our way, but figured they'd send the kids home early from school, having forgotten what an administrative nightmare that is. But a full snow day was declared, even though this is what it looked like all morning (note that the only snow in this picture is a two-day-old dusting):



By mid-afternoon, however, the scene had changed, although the chorus of "SNOW DAY!!" sounded exactly the same:



Hooray for some spontaneous family time! For me that included bringing the kids to my chiropractor appointment (I'm down to just tape, instead of the air-cast...woo hoo!), and then to the Mac's drive-thru for breakfast, group house-cleaning, a start on the holiday decorating, and watching an old movie.

For Alan, that meant snow removal while supervising outdoor play.

The not-so-fun parts included me having a horrible cold and Alan having to work a large portion of the day. Yay...snow day...?

Now I'm off to bed on the couch, armed with tissues, mentholatum and nyquil. uhg.