Merry Christmas II

We just got back from a fun long weekend in Indiana with Kent's family. We ate a lot, did a little shopping, played a game or two (do crazy eight's and war count in the game total?) hung out with family, and opened a lot of presents!

The kids were great at waiting to open presents, but when we were all getting settled, they did start to get impatient..."can't we start opening YET?"
Once we gave the go-ahead, the kids were very single-minded in their goal to open everything and see everything as fast as possible...


...except for Jesse. He was very single-minded about getting each toy out and playing with it before moving on to the next present.


As you can see above, the other kids are long done opening their things, and Jesse is still on one of his first presents. (Oh yeah, and you can also see the apparent wrapping paper bomb that went off!)
We had fun boxing with the Wii again. Except this time Meredith got a chance to test out her skills.


It's been a few years since we've gone to Indiana so close to Christmas, and we were really glad that we did. It was so nice to see everyone and celebrate together. Jim and Bev, we'll see you in a few short weeks! (I must say that I'm not sad that it won't be us making the 6-hour drive then!)

Christmas Cinnamon Rolls

A while ago my mom and I made a cinnamon roll tea ring for our family Christmas breakfast. My mom was in charge of keeping Jesse occupied, and Meredith and I were in charge of making the tea ring.

I took the easy route this year and made dough in my bread machine. I now regret this time-saving decision since the rolls were not nearly as good as the ones that my mom makes. But I guess I'll know for next time...


Yummy butter, sugar, and cinnamon goodness!


Shaping the ring.
Just pretend you don't see my daughter eating raw dough!

It was nice to have my mom there to tell me what to do - this was the first time that I had made a tea ring instead of just making regular rolls.
Not exactly the finished product, but I forgot to take a final picture. So just imagine that these are baked, frosted, sprinkled with red and green sugar, and ready to eat.

Merry Christmas

Here are some pictures from our Christmas with Theresa's family.

Fun boxing with the Wii. Well, I think Randy had fun, but I don't know how much Kent enjoyed being knocked out time and time again!

Fun watching the boxing...

You would think he was looking at all the presents under the tree instead of watching the boxing match. (OK, so he was probably having fun watching Kent do everything to NOT get knocked out!)

Yummy fondue. This year because of my mom's surgery on the 23rd, the question was raised as to if we should scale back the Christmas Eve meal. I think I 'bout had a heart attack - mess with tradition? No way!

Jesse got a tractor and wagon for Christmas...

"Come on Mom, can't you get it out of the box any faster???"

"Seriously, I have the tractor but hurry up and get the wagon out of the box!"

"FINALLY!"

When Jace received these little cars, Jesse was quite upset that they weren't his. Thankfully Jace let Jesse play with them!

Does this tell you anything if you see the kids reading on Christmas Eve? I think they were having fun, but were just having a little down time...yeah, we'll say that they were just too exhausted from all the playing!

Speaking of exhausted, oh what a toll the Christmas festivities take on a girl.

The stockings were hung...

by the stairway with care.