Christmas

This was our first Christmas sans family. Despite that we had a really great time with two of our best friends. Just like Christmas Eve, Christmas was more cooking, eating, and Settlers of Catan. We were blessed with a lot of great gifts this year but it was hard to top the wee little gift I've been carrying.

D and I couldn't stop thinking about how this was our final Christmas as a duo. It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that there will be a little person bossing us around, stealing our hearts next year... but, oh man, we can't wait. 

It's also hard for me to think of how we'll get another person to pose in our Christmas picture since we have a hard enough time taking one ourselves. 

Hope your holiday was merry and bright. 

The Eve

 Emma

 Our tree. I'm pretty sure it hated us. It fell over twice and shattered a few special ornaments, including our star. 

 Prepping some basil

 A classy, young gentleman

 A crazy fart head

 AH-MAZ-ING Greek spaghetti prepared by Chris.

 Lovin' the Christmas cards we received. Between sleeping and baby excitement I didn't have time to get our out this year. 

 Lots o' gifts!

 Cookin' a sweet potato

 My famous Brie En Croute. So famous that a certain dog got up in the middle of the night and ate the remaining half. HE will not be named. 

 Chris and D. 

 Boys are creative wrappers- especially when a poop bag is involved. 

 My favorite bag from my favorite half-Jewish gal. 

 Inside joke

 Another creative wrapping example. (And, might I add, that it contains only ONE shoe. Not a pair. Just one.) 

 Mmm mmm!

 The dapper cook.

Full tummies all around. 

...

Two posts in a row?! Yes it's true. The first one is here. 

Hostess With The Mostest

Today is our last day with D's family in town. What a crazy, fun week it's been! I feel like eating and playing Rock Band endlessly are about the only things we've accomplished. Fortunately the weather has cooperated a bit, and have allowed the boys to go fishing and shooting. 

This was the second time we've hosted Christmas at our house. (Last year being the first) But this was my VERY first year hosting AND cooking Christmas dinner. With a little help from D's mom I was able to pull it off. The only thing I managed to burn was a potholder. (After accidently touching it to the oven coil. No biggie!) 

Up until Christmas day I had been trying to fight some sort of illness. At first I thought it was the flu but it turned out to be a combination of side effects, sleep deprivation, sinus infection and 9 combined hours of singing to Rock Band. Lots of caffiene and Mucinex kept me going, but I ended up completely losing my voice a few hours before Christmas dinner. 

We feasted on glazed ham, salad, green bean casserole, funeral potato casserole, and rolls. 

 The gang minus three

 After dinner we enjoyed a very competitive game of Cranium. 

All in all, Santa was extremely good to Hubs and Wifey this year. Actually, I got really spoiled by D Santa by receiving a brand new camera....Merry Christmas to me!

 I'm extremely excited to take better pictures on a camera with a way better zoom lense. And I plan on taking better care of this camera since we beat the crap out of our old one. One day (waaaaay in the future) I will have my SLR camera that I've been dreaming of. 

To demonstrate better zoom/ quality- I took this picture yesterday standing in my kitchen (yes- inside, but obviously, zooming in) facing the backyard where this little island resides. 

(Insert Wifey's happy dance here) 

Although It's Been Said

Many times, many ways.

Decked

I finally finished decking our halls with Christmas decor. I anxiously counted down the minutes until Thanksgiving was over so I could pull out our holiday decorations with an giddy smile on my face began putting everything up the day after Thanksgiving. 

I tried my best to wait until December 1st but that didn't work out. 

However- we did wait until December to get our tree. 

 D wanted a picture of the tree. It's a LOT heavier than I expected.

 Why would D help when he could take pictures of me struggling to hold it up? (While laughing)

2010's Christmas tree is a lot taller and fatter than 2009's. I had to buy two extra strands of lights! (I really should have purchased at least one more. I cheated to save $6.99) 

The tree sat with just lights only for about a week. I was too tired to put the ornaments on after getting it set up. 

 Ta-da! Our fatty tree complete with lights and ornaments 

(Flash is on)

 Ta-da! Again... but my flash is off this time. 

I love our house when it's decorated for Christmas. This year we added a lot more since (1) we can afford to, and (2) because we have family coming. Some snapshots... 

 Our living room

 Entry way

Front door 

Can't forget pictures of our Christmas lights. Total, we have approximately 34 boxes (strands) of lights. Over 22 of those are on our garage alone. D and friend did the garage and our little tree. Today I braved the elements (including, but not limited to: rain, 25 mph winds, cold, and electricution) to finish the top of our house and the backyard fence. 

The backyard fence looks better in person. Blue lights on one side and multi-colored on the other. 

Now if I could only finish my handmade gifts and Christmas shopping...