Somebody give Santa a high five!

I'm going to post about all of Christmas soon, but I couldn't wait to post pictures of Kate's big present from Santa! His elves worked hard and made this fun kitchen especially for her because he knew she would love it! (and her brother too!)

I was up every night working hard on making her this felt food because I was hoping Santa would bring her a kitchen. I got the patterns from buggabugs after Thanksgiving and felted my heart out...but I still have some left to make. But I think they are really cute and worth the effort!

So when you come over to our house, come hungry! Kate is cooking nonstop!

Christmas eve 2009

We were so excited (and surprised) to have our Daddy home for Christmas eve this year. With his busy schedule at the hospital we didn't think he would get anything but Christmas day off. It was nice because it made the day feel a little more special....different from the norm. This year we started out Christmas eve by icing cookies for Santa Claus. We only made half a batch, just enough for the big guy and a little leftover for us. Both the kids loved icing and sprinkling them...and making a big mess in the process!

But they were really yummy!

We spent the afternoon hanging out and getting the house all clean for Santa's visit and then headed to Olive Garden, one of my family's most beloved Christmas traditions. The tradition started way back when I was little and my mom worked for UPS. Christmas eve is a big working day for UPS, so she would get home late and tired and thus Christmas eve at the only restaurant open was born. Nowadays I think most restaurants are open, but Olive Garden just feels like Christmas eve. When I told Kate we were going to Olive Garden said, "I don't want to go to a garden, I want to go to a restaurant!" She was pleasantly surprised when we got there.

Sawyer's excited for Christmas!

On the way home we drove through the heights and looked at Christmas lights. It was just getting dark when we got there so some houses weren't lit yet, but we saw some fun things like a Santa riding a shark before we headed home. On the way Kate was asking what we were going to do when we got home and I told her talk about Jesus, eat cookies and drink wassail, open one present, write letters to Santa....and she said, "No, what are we going to do RIGHT when we get home?" I asked her what she wanted to do and she said, "open one present!" So that is what we did. Both kids were excited to see their matching pajamas and once we put them on, we continued with our Christmas eve traditions.

And then we all nestled ourselves snug in our beds. I think I was the only one in the house who had a hard time sleeping from excitement.

And then.....it was Christmas morning!

Kate Christmas quotes

K: "Mom, Sawyer pulled the star off my ceiling!"
Me: "That's okay, I'll put it back up later."
K: "But....how will baby Jesus come?"

K: "How come there is no snow?"
Me: "We would have to live somewhere where it is cold all the time for there to be snow."
K: "Like.......Mexico?"


K: "What goes in Wassail?"
Me: "sugar, cloves, cinnamon sticks, orange juice, lemon juice and apple juice."
K: "I don't want shirts in mine."
Me: "What?"
K: "what did you say was in wassail?"
Me: "sugar, cloves...."
K: "I don't want clothes in mine!"

(while driving in the car)
K: "Mom, last year when we were at Grammie's house it was Christmas and I went downstairs and saw Santa and I said "what are you doing here" and he said "I just came to see your tree" and I said "oh" and he said "I want to take a little rest" and so Santa took a little rest."

Reindeer food

Today we made reindeer food to give to all our great gym daycare teachers and, of course, to leave out for Santa's reindeer on Christmas eve. I found a few recipes but this looked the yummiest to me! I need to remember next time to pick something that doesn't look quite so yummy so I won't be eating it as much!

Here is the recipe:

2 (24-ounce) packages vanilla candy coating
3 cups mini pretzels
1 (12-ounce) can cocktail peanuts
1 (14.25-ounce) package frosted toasted oat O-shaped cereal
1 (12-ounce) package crisp rice cereal squares
1 (16-ounce) package holiday candy-coated chocolate pieces
Red and green sugars

Place candy coating in a glass container; microwave at HIGH 2 1/2 minutes or until melted, stirring once.

Combine pretzels and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl; add melted candy coating, tossing to coat. Stir in chocolate pieces.

Spread mixture onto wax paper; sprinkle with sugars. Let stand 30 minutes. Break into pieces.

Southern Living, DECEMBER 1999

Christmas fun

I thought I would catch up with blogging by going through all my pictures and finally blogging all our Christmasy fun....but when I went to organize my pictures I realized I haven't taken very many! I guess I was too busy to even take pictures to blog about! Here are a few from our recent adventures.

First off, last week Kate had parent's day at her dance class. Ryan was able to get off work just in time to come with us and we loaded up all our cameras. We had promised her Chick-fil-a afterwards and she was gabbing and giggling all the way there. Once we got there, it was a different story! She regressed back to where we were in September....crying, fingers in her mouth, saying her tummy hurt, etc. I was going CRAZY! She kept coming and talking to us and we would tell her to go out there and dance or she wouldn't get Chick-fil-a. She would walk out there, dance a little and then come back. Finally I was fed up and said, "Okay, let's just go home." When she heard that, she started screaming bloody murder and I had to drag her out. I felt like everyone was looking at me like I had threatened to rip the heads off all her dolls. She ended up going in and finishing the class with no enthusiasm, and then skipping to the car, gabbing and giggling and ready for Chick-fil-a. Mom and Dad were a little disappointed. I sure hope when we start again in January she'll go back to her good habits!
Her teachers did enjoy her Christmas present she gave them, though. I got the idea from this blog.

Today we went to the library and made gingerbread houses. It was seriously awesome. They had already put together the houses for the little kids so the icing was all dry and sturdy. A mom's dream! They both had a lot of fun.

This is Sawyer's "Uh oh" face. I LOVE it!

Afterwards I let them swing for a minute or two. It was 65 degrees....I would have been a bad mom if I hadn't!

Sunday night our advent calandar said to take a drive and look for Christmas lights. Daddy did his research and we drove out close to the temple to a fun neighborhood with tons of lights. The kids all LOVE it. Every time we saw a Santa, we would point and say, "ho ho ho!" along with Sawyer! Kate's favorite was the blue house because they gave out candy canes as you drove by.

4 days and counting!

Hope you enjoy them!

I promise to blog about my own family one of these days!

Santa Claus is coming to town and pizza

Saturday was our ward Christmas party and it was a fun evening of food and music and, of course, Santa! Kate is so excited about Santa this year and she is constantly asking me questions about the reindeer and how he gets in and how he knows if she is good. Seriously, if I had a nickel for every time she asked me how he knows she is good, I would be rich! As soon as we got to the party she pointed to the corner and said, "That is Santa's chair." Then she asked me why Santa wasn't here yet (I told her he would come when we were done eating) and how he was going to know when we were done eating (I told her someone would call him) and what he was going to ask her and so on. When we were in line, a friend asked her what she was going to ask Santa for and she said a princess clock. It took us a while to understand that was what she was saying. Where did that come from? I have no idea. When I asked her where she had seen a princess clock she told me she had seen one at the store. I think is funny that every time we see Santa at a ward Christmas party it is always warm and her cheeks get red. See last year and this is her first Christmas party with Santa


Oh man, how did she get so big? Well here is this year. Can you tell she's excited?
Sawyer, on the other hand, was less than excited and this picture doesn't properly convey how scared he was. Ryan looks really excited to see Santa, though!
And during December we've taken the idea from other people and I made an advent calender with activities for each day. They're usually small like write letters or make cookies. Friday we made snowman pizza. I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season as much as we are! I just wish it would slow down!

dancing little elf

I have a lot of fun dressing Kate for dance. I love the leg warmers and tutus and her cute little tushie in her leotard. We were feeling extra festive this week. And here is a video of everyone's favorite dance move. It is called "hot hot hot hot...cooooold" and you'll know why when you watch it. She is usually a little more attentive but I was kind of distracting her!

I'm so glad the days of fighting her to go and do are over and we can both just enjoy dance!!

Thanksgiving and Grandma K and a lot of ketchup

We were so lucky to have Ryan's mom come to help us celebrate Thanksgiving this year! Ryan was able to take the time off work to spend it with all of us, which was quite a treat for everyone (especially me, who seemed to have a hard time hearing my kids in the morning so I got to sleep in a lot!) We made pies the night before the big day. Grandma passed on her yummy cherry pie techniques to Kate and Sawyer, who were eager helpers!

And look, here is a picture of me! I love my husband so much that I made him a mincemeat pie

Thanksgiving morning the kids helped me make cinnamon rolls and then we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade....this is one of my favorite traditions and I kept telling Kate about it to get her excited. She enjoyed it, but she asked me every 5 minutes when Santa was coming on the TV. 3 hours is a lot of parade and I was wishing I had watched it a little later when I could have taped it and skipped the commercials. I'll have to remember that next year!

We tried something new this year and let our Turkey sit in a brine overnight. We put it in a trash bag inside the roasting pan but the bag kept muffin-topping out the sides so we made a clever turkey brine dam all around it using plates and masking tape....it worked great! I don't know if the turkey was extraordinary or anything, but it was fun to try!

I those are all my Thanksgiving pictures. I guess I was busy cooking or something. Everything was yummy and it was a fun day.

One of our fun adventures with Grandma K was going down to Galveston. Unfortunately she came the week the weather just started turning cold so the 70 degree days we had the week before were gone. It was cloudy and a bit chilly but they still had fun playing in the sand and searching for sea treasures.

And, last but not least, Kate and Sawyer's favorite thing to do with Grandma was read bedtime stories with her. I'm pretty sure she had "McGuillicuddy Could" memorized by the time she left!

Thanks for the fun visit, Grandma!