So I'm finally ready to post about Christmas Day. We all got up around 8:30a.m. And the kids opened their presents from Santa and checked out their stockings. Then we had our traditional Breakfast Casserole. We have this casserole 3 times a year, the Sunday morning of General conference and Christmas. We also have cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. Yummy!! After breakfast everyone opened their presents and then much to my happiness, everyone put their things away in their rooms. I guess everyone has learned by now how much I hate the clutter of Christmas stuff hanging around for days. Thanks guys. I think everyone got everything, well not everything of course, but everything that is reasonable, for Christmas. Here are a few pictures of Christmas morning.
The family room before everything was unwrapped.
Steph with her Santa gifts.
Nic with her Santa gifts.
Erica with her Santa gifts.
Me.
Steve.
A picture Steve took of the house when it was snowing, sometime in December. I think December was the only month we got snow this winter :(
One of my friends gave me this for Christmas. I think it's extremely funny. I'm going to keep it out all year long. Not that it will make a difference whether I eat something I shouldn't or not.
After the present opening and lounging around for a while some of us got dressed. Probably Erica, Nic and Steph. Probably not me and Steve. haha. Then we got on the web cam and watched Shared, Brit, Ethan, and Kylie open their presents from us, and us open our presents from them. It was fun watching the kids. Britney and Kylie were sick, that's not fun. They gave us some fun things. Brit and Shared gave Steve and I our Wedding photos they had made into a book. I was so surprised. It really means a lot to me and Steve. We love it. Thanks for everything you guys. For dinner we had ham and potatoes and probably munched on a bunch of junk after that. Yum. I really can't remember what we did the rest of the night. But, it was relaxing and fun.
2009 is over now. I really really really hope 2010 is a good year. But, what does good mean, right?
We had a wonderful, relaxing, and fun Christmas this year. One of the fun things we did was to draw names for one another and then make a gift for that person. On Christmas Eve we gave each other the gifts. So let me back up for a minute. Christmas Eve: For dinner we had mashed potato soup, a recipe I found on a food blog, it was pretty good, we also had a cheese ball with crackers and chips and dips.
After dinner we had a Christmas program. This was Steph's idea. We used to always have a Christmas programs at Mom and Dad's house on Christmas Eve. I guess we'll start doing it at our house now. Everyone was in charge of thinking of something to do for the program. We started with youngest to oldest. Steph played some Christmas songs on the viola for us. This was a real treat because she NEVER plays in front of us. Nicole said she never got the memo about the Christmas program but she found a poem (Robert Frost I think) to read for us. Erica read us a short Christmas story called Christmas is for Love. ( it was a tear jerker) I played a song from the Forgotten Carols and tried to emphasize and enforce the meaning of it, it was I Cannot Find My Way. I love that song. And finally, Steve surprised us all by purchasing gifts so we could play the traditional ( it was my mom's favorite game) "present game". The program was a lot of fun. It will now be something we do every year.
After the program we played a game, everyone got 3, $1.00 bills pinned on their shirt. Then we had 2 "taboo" words that couldn't be said, they were "present" and "christmas", and every hour we added another word to the "do not say" list. If you got caught saying one of the words then the person that caught you gets one of your $1.00 bills. We played this for 2 hours, it was fun but after 2 hours you get a little sick of trying to focus on not saying the words. You really did have the potential of "earning" $15.00. But, in the end, everyone ended up with $3.00. It was something different to do. Here are the pictures from our money game.
Erica looks pretty excited about it don't ya think?
Nicole getting her money. I can imagine what she's thinking, "well, this is awkward".
Steph and her money. I'm sure she's excited about the potential of snagging $15.00.
So, then we were ready to open the presents from one another. They had to be gifts you made. So Steve had Erica, he put together a photo album for her with little notes he'd written just for her tucked in every so often. It was very cute.
Next I had Nicole. I made her a sign that said "Dance Like No One Is Watching". I think she liked it.
Seriously, sometimes Nicole does dance like no one is watching. haha. We love it.
Erica had Steph. She drew a colored pencil on canvas of some flowers for Steph to put in her room. And Erica and I made Steph a necklace.
Steph had me. She crocheted me a scarf to wear while I'm walking in the mornings and mod podged this cute star shaped box with paper.
I am ABSOLUTELY SICK about the fact that we don't have pictures of Steve on here. He is always the one taking pictures cause he has a snazzy camera that I don't know how to use. That's my goal this year, more pictures of Steve. He's way more photogenic than I am.
(Problem solved. I just took a picture of Steve holding the gift that Nicole gave him)
So, Nicole had Steve. She gave him a binder filled with stories and pictures that she had written since she was in kindergarten. They were so cute. One night Steve and I laid in bed and looked through the binder, it was so much fun, it brought back a lot of memories of when Nic was younger.
After all the games and presents we worked on a puzzle then played games then had some ice cream. It was a fun Christmas Eve night.
Wow. I'm posting 2 days in a row. Well, I had an idea. If you've seen Brit's blog, (and if you're looking at mine you've most likely seen hers) you saw pictures from our visit at Thanksgiving. Since she posted all the cute pictures I thought I'd post the goofy pictures. You know, the ones where someone has a goofy or awkward look on their face when the camera clicks. I'm doing this cause I'm a "poop". That's my word, I call everyone that, just ask Steph. haha. (wish me luck on my issues with text and pictures)
I love Brit's expression here, this is when we were giving Kylie a cranberry.
Maybe you can't see this picture very good, I love Brit's face here again. haha. I love ya sweetie.
Here's Ethan showing Grandpa his eyes.
This is very cute of Ethan, he almost looks like he has mischief on his mind or he's thinking about ice cream.
Are you mad Steph? You look annoyed, I'm sure you will be after you see this. Yikes. I also love you too sweetie.
I just think this picture is funny cause everyone is so engrossed watching Brit put the fondant on Ethan's Birthday cake.
Time to make fun of myself, here I am fixing my shirt, and, my eyes are closed. The flash on Steve's camera is very bright.
Here's me and Erica, honestly, 50% of the time that flash goes off my eyes are closed. Sooo embarrassing.
Sorry everyone, at least I also made fun of myself .
Now for some cute pictures. Here's Ethan watching Erica play webkinz. I'm sure it won't be long before he's addicted to webkinz too.
Erica, me and Nicole watching Ethan open his Birthday presents. We were all pretty tired. Ethan and Kylie get up early.
This is just so cute of Kylie. She's looking at the oven mitt that came with Ethan's play cookies
We had so much fun at Thanksgiving. Thanks Cockcroft family for letting us invade your house. We always have a wonderful time.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I better catch up. Let's start with Halloween. Nicole surprised us by saying she wanted to spend Halloween with us. That was very lucky for us, we can be pretty boring but when Nicole is around it's always a party. (FYI, do you know why I hate to blog? I can never get the pictures and the text where I want them and in the right order. SO FRUSTRATING!)
So, I made a jack o lantern cake for dessert. Here are Erica, Nicole and Stephanie licking the beaters. You're never too old for that.
Then the girls decided to "dress up" for Halloween. Here they are in their "costumes" acting goofy.
They also wanted to put some rub on tattoos on. You probably can't see them very well.
Here's me and Erica with our "Good Witch" "Bad Witch" shirts on. Of course Er is the good one and I am the bad one. haha.
And finally, Nicole and Stephanie outside waiting for the trick or treaters. They were a little hyper that night. They took out Nic's speakers and listened to Halloween music and danced. They probably don't want me to share that though.
