Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Christmas


Amanda and me at my Mother-in-law's home in Westport


Thomas with Grandma's really cool carousel      

So, a quickie Christmas recap- Christmas Eve took us to Jack's mom's house in Westport.

As is the usual way, many little bowls of things to nibble on were set out upon our arrival. It's like dim sum a la Westport. Cheese, crackers, summer sausage, grapes, little oranges all peeled and separated into sections, mini carrots. When the kids were little there was always a bowl of something like Froot Loops or Coco Puffs. New this year were two things: guacamole (yum) and chopped up pieces of smoked razor clams that someone gave my sweet mother-in-law who I think likes all things from the ocean. I had to draw the line at the smoked clams. This picture gives an idea of the set up of little bowls. Amanda will want you to know it is ROOT beer, not a fresh cold Henry's.





Scott cooked, food was great! Ham, potatoes au gratin, salad. All just yummy. It's hard not to like something when it is cooked in cream and has cheese oozing through it.

Gift giving, as always, was super fun. But, the piece of the evening that will never be forgotten is when my BIL Todd announced his engagement to Coral-the-former-girlfriend. You can imagine our surprise! After getting caught up with how we got from "She needs to get on with her life, which won't include me" to "I love her and we're getting married", congratulations were offered all around. I look forward to getting to know Coral and her family better. This probably includes the proper spelling of her name. Sorry Coral!


Christmas Day we were at home. Emily was sick and had been up coughing most of the night. Of course when the sun came up, she was finally getting some quality sleep. The only problem was that presents and stockings were waiting downstairs and her siblings were doing their best to be patient and let her sleep. They know the rules: don't come downstairs until you are invited to by mom and dad. So, Amanda and Thomas kept busy in Amanda's room. They were shooting the new super blaster nerf shooting gun received from Grandma the night before, and Amanda read Calvin and Hobbes comics to Thomas. By 8AM nobody could stand it any more and we had to get Emily up.


Look at the little darlings. Nothing says "Christmas Morning" like new jammies and a gun in your hand.
Such fun to unpack the stockings! Santa usually fills them with random things and this year was no different.


Giant Hershey bars, little craft kits, gummy candy, peppermint sticks and flarp. Flarp is this amazing goo that comes in a plastic little can. When you push your fingers through it, it sounds like, well... a fart. Thomas especially appreciated the flarp gift. It's great to be an 8-year old boy at Christmas!




From the stockings we went to the tree and by the time we got done there, it looked like a bomb went off at the wrapping paper factory. Such fun to open gifts, and a great time to count blessings.


Thomas and Jack received matching Mariner's pants

We spent the day playing with new toys, picking up a bit and I did a little baking. That evening we had some friends over for dessert so I had to get a cheesecake and pie ready to add to the mix of other sweet treats.



The dessert spread

I fell into bed that night, exhausted from the day's activities, but very happy. To celebrate the birth of our savior with people you love, great food and fun gifts... it gets no better than that!

1 comment:

  1. "Nothing says Christmas morning like jammies and a gun in your hand" ... I love it! We have been having an increasing number of nerf gun fights at my mom's house lately :)

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