Christmas Week

My two favorite girls in the world...together.

Steve loves this holiday almost as much as I do, although this year we decided to not put out ALL of our decorations.......so I had to keep my eye on him because I think he was making random editing decisions about what should stay and what should go! Imagine that?

It is hard to believe that Christmas has once again come and gone. We spend so much time and energy working up to this, my favorite, holiday and then suddenly it is over. There is nothing splendid and exciting about taking down the decorations, figuring out how to fit all of those leftovers in the refrigerator and wondering if you should start the diet NOW or wait until after the new year.
We were so lucky to have everyone home this year for the holiday. Mary Beth and I picked Rachel up from the airport last Tuesday before Christmas and headed to her house in Springdale. We enjoyed seeing her house decorated for Christmas, with her peacock feather theme included.

Mary Beth's peacock feather wreath that she made herself - gorgeous!

Then we took off for an afternoon of shopping and eating out together. It is so special to get to do this with just the three of us girls - a rare treat since Rachel is in New Hampshire. We made plans and laughed a lot and plotted about the gifts we were giving the guys.
We baked cookies and decorated them, as well as played some board games together. (again something we don't find time to do the rest of the year.

Need a good laugh? Rachel and I would suggest playing a board game like Pictionary with Greg and Steve. No way could you sit through that without cracking up.

Cutting out my famous sugar cookies that I should be able to make from memory by now!

These two are likely up to something....

Everyone had their ornament to hang up, which is a really big deal at our house. When they were babies, we started collecting a special ornament each year, trying to connect it some way to some event from the year that would hold meaning for them but sometimes it was just something they liked. We date them and keep them each year. The idea is then when they get married and set up a house of their own, you give them these ornaments so that they will always have the memories of their home with them wherever they go. It used to be a big family event for us to go in search of our ornaments, usually after our visit with Santa, but as the years went by and everyone was spread out it became more and more difficult to find time to search for that perfect ornment. One year Mary Beth and Rachel went out at the final hour before the stores closed and the only thing left were a couple of very ugly, but funny looking ornaments for the tree. It is traditional that everyone hangs their own ornments even if it is on Christmas Eve.

Jonathan watches as Mary Beth opens her gift from Rachel which was a cookbook she compiled from everyone in the family, typed the recipes online and the company prints this bound cookbook that can even be added to. She has all the family favorites, even some from her grandmothers!

Rachel was still on New Hampshire time on Christmas Eve. Traditionally we open one gift that night and the rest the following morning. We decided to wake her up just to open her gift. She was in a deep sleep and when we woke her, she never really woke up...

Half asleep, Rachel opened her gift, which was a ceramic Gingerbread house that plays the theme from the Nutcracker and lights up to the music - which she LOVED the next day....she opened it and said "it's a house" in a really flat tone. We teased her about that the next day.

Jonathan is trying to help Greg figure out his clues in order to find his PS3. Since he basically had one main gift, he had to complete tasks in 6 clue envelopes in order to find his PS3.

The new makeup makes all the difference in the world, don't you think???

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!