Christmas Morning

Not sure what Piper was thinking in this picture. Maybe "Santa brought me that fort kit I've been wanting? Are you serious?!" She was very excited. {The gift from Santa is always unwrapped and set up.}

Max LOVED his car ramp! He has played with it non-stop.
We had 9am church, so we opened stockings and then headed to church.

After church we had breakfast and finished opening presents!

Daddy was thrilled with his tupperware - that's what you get when you complain that we don't have any matching pieces :)

Grandma Sharron spent the night, as tradition.

And Steve completely surprised me with a new camera! I was joking that if he wanted to break the budget, he could get me one. He had no idea what kind/model I wanted (and neither did I since I really wasn't serious about buying one), so he went with the salesman's recommendation - the Sony SLT-A55VL- it won camera of the year in 2010 {my old camera is a Sony ultrazoom - not an SLR}. Still figuring it all out. Many posts to come on that I'm sure. I did surprise him with a new watch. Picture still to come in the next post.

Getting a new lens for my birthday in a couple of weeks - any recommendations? What can't you live without?

Christmas Eve

We have a Christmas Eve tradition of dinner and cousin gift exchange with Steve's brother's family.

Maggie was trying to watch 'Gabba' on TV, but Max kept closing the bedroom door on her, making her cry :(

The best we could get of all the cousins together.

Time for presents!

Piper loved her Webkinz kitty and Max loved his football!

I think everyone loved the football.

Then it was time for the traditional Christmas Eve jammies.

And slippers :)

When we got home we realized that we forgot to make cookies for Santa earlier in the day {the dough was waiting for us in the fridge}. So at 9:30pm, we made a few gingerbread cookies.

Whew. I think Santa was pleased.

Pre-Christmas festivities

A couple of cousins and Grandma Joan were over for a bit last week. Kai just woke up - he looks thrilled for the picture, doesn't he?

Grandma let Piper & Max open an early Christmas gift. I'll have to take a picture of the game she got them... Fisher Price MyToon TV. It's a camera that hooks up to the tv so you can watch yourself dance, along with cartoon characters of yourself. It was a big hit! Thanks, Grandma!

Hand-made gifts, literally

Had to wait til after Christmas to post this.

We made these adorable hand print Santa ornaments for the Grandma's and for Max's birthmom.

I think they turned out so cute! {obviously from pinterest} This is actually the second batch, as I forgot to prick holes in the first ones and they blew up like balloons.
*updated- recipe here: http://homemadegrits.blogspot.com/2009/12/handmade-christmas-homemade-ornaments.html

And some pre-Christmas snugglin' on the couch.

Nothing like a squishy sister hug!

We had a fabulous Christmas. Several Christmas posts to come. And Steve surprised me with a new camera!! Now I just have to learn to use it.

Merry Christmas!

Paper Snowball Fight... and other party games

We hosted the Christmas party for my side of the family this year. Yes, Pinterest was heavily involved, from the buffalo chicken dip to the minute-to-win-it games.

Team Santa against Team Reindeer:

Snowball fight (the object of the game was to have the least amount of snowballs on your team's side at the end of one minute.

Deer Nose Dive game - get the red pompom that is attached to a ribbon to stick to your vaseline-covered nose.

Gift stacking relay:

Face the gingerbread man: the object is to get the gingerbread cookie from your forehead into your mouth without touching it with your hands.
And just try to open a wrapped gift wearing ski gloves...

O Tannenbaum: see who can build the tallest whip cream Christmas tree. We ran out of whip cream way too fast.

Merry fishmas: much harder than it looks - get the candy canes onto the fish hook in less than a minute


And then instead of exchanging presents with the cousins this year, we exchanged ornaments. I think it was a big hit. Max tried to eat his, of course.

*Steve - see all these blurry pictures from the incredibly awful lighting in the house? This is why I need a new camera, or a new house... I'll be happy with either, or both ;)

The New Trees, the Real Birthday and a Gingerbread House

So before the princess party, we got a new Christmas tree, but I didn't have time to decorate it for several days. I started 'fluffing' it, but didn't even get that done for a couple of days, to Max's delight. It was the perfect ball storage spot.

And storage spot for his lion, sippy cup, weeble wobble...

He didn't seem to care much for the scrap felt tree skirt I hot glued together either.

When we finally did get around to decorating, we didn't even chance going more than halfway down the tree, even if Max wasn't that interested in it. The top half looks festive, heh?

He is, however, very interested in swinging the ball decorations.

So on Piper's actual birthday, we went to dinner with Grandma Sharron. She got to pick the restaurant - Olive Garden for minestrone soup was her choice.
And a couple more presents. Another ladybug garden - same gift as last year. Loved it just as much this year.

Then she wanted to decorate a gingerbread house. Max wanted to help too.

The candycane on the roof - that's Santa in his sleigh.

And last but not least, the little white tree in her room, decorated with ornaments my mom painted the year I was born - those ornaments are 40 years old!!  I think the ladybugs like them :)

Advent Calendar

Max sort of got to the advent calendar and took all the chocolate out (not that he even eats chocolate)...

So Piper put some cereal in the empty places ;)

Snow Princess Party

Piper wanted a Snow Princess Party for her birthday this year. So I had cake in mind - a round one with  snow and snowflakes. She looked on Pinterest with me (how did I ever live without Pinterest?) and agreed on a couple of cakes. Then, at the last minute, she told me she wanted a Barbie Snow Princess cake. So we kept the cupcake tier idea and did a doll cake instead of a round  one. It was my first (and possibly my last) attempt working with fondant. Luckily the cake was small, and I did most of the details in frosting.

She loved it. Whew.

She and her friends played Snow Princess games like "Princess May I?" and "Pass the Cold Snowball" (instead of 'hot potato'). Of course there were presents, too.

In the end, she didn't actually eat any of her cake, just the ice cream.

And then we made snow globes.

This picture is actually from today - we had leftover supplies so she made another.

Sleeping with her birthday gifts, all neatly arranged in her bed ;)