Christmas Day

The kids were so excited Christmas morning!  This is before the craziness ensued.

Addie Loved her dollhouse!  She also got some furniture and Mommy and little sister doll to go with her house.

I don't have pictures but the boys loved their gifts too.  Parker got an Austin Collie jersey, Duke fat heads (vinyl printouts that you put on your wall of the Duke mascot and Duke logos) and a DS game in his stocking.  Owen loved his Indian Jones Lego set, Percy Harvin jersey and DS game in his stocking.

Aunt Kristi, Uncle Cole, Taylor, Baylee and Layla gave them Marion Kart with is AWESOME!  They played it most of the day.  Scott and I have enjoyed battling it out with them too.  

O got legos from Grandmama & Grandaddy.

Addie and her princesses from Grandmama & Grandaddy.

We kept joking of all the "Christmas Miracles" that happened but one of the major ones was my cinnamon rolls turned out the best they ever have.  Scott's mom makes delicious cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning and I have tried and tried but cannot get them to turn out as good.  I finally gave up a few years ago and started using Rhodes frozen cinnamon rolls (they kind you don't even have to let rise) and they are delicious and so easy but since they don't sell the kind I like here in Ohio I tried my hand at them again.  I used a new recipe and it turned out really great.  I definitely haven't perfected them but at least it's a step in the right direction!

Scott with his favorite part of Christmas!

Probably the biggest Christmas miracle was Scott reading!  It wasn't surprising that Parker went and curled up to read the latest Diary of the Wimpy Kid book that he'd been waiting for but to walk around the corner and see Scott on the couch reading was truly a miracle!  He was reading the George W. Bush book Decision Points that he had asked for.

Scott in his attempt to look intellectual!  Not sure if he's pulling it off!

Another Christmas Miracle was that I just kept dinner low key and even used PAPER PLATES!  Even though no one came for Christmas this year, it's still surprising I kept the meal simple.  It's just not in my genes to have a small holiday meal but it was really nice and relaxing to not do too much.  We had ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, roasted brussel sprouts with pancetta, sweet potatoes, and rolls.  For dessert we had pecan and pumpkin pie.  It was great!   Having a small meal freed up time during the afternoon for me to have a Christmas nap which was a miracle too!

Notice the boys are decked in their Lakers jerseys ready to watch the Lakers game that night with Dad.

Addie got cold during the meal so she ran and put on her coat to eat in.

Our neighbors, the Wexelblatts, brought over their gingerbread log cabin for us.  It was so cute I wanted to take some pictures so I could maybe try and recreate it one day.  The gingerbread tasted really good too.

One last picture.  This is one of my favorite Christmas decorations.  I made it with some of my dearest friends about 4 years ago.  There were six of us who worked on it.  It was me, Carey Baldwin, Sarah Caine, Rebecca Vanden Akker, Maile Wilson, and Kara West.  We made our own tree and then we each made 6 of 4 different ornaments.  I love thinking about those girls when their ornament gets placed on the tree.