A Holly Jolly Christmas

The elves were up before the sun had risen.  Before any of us had risen, actually.  They waited as patiently as they could while the big people made coffee, cut up Kringle (oh, how I love our Christmas Kringle) and poured the mimosas.  Finally, we told them it was time to pass out presents and they went at it with gusto...

And, after a final once over underneath the tree, they declared that all of the gifts were given to their rightful owners.  And we let them have at it.  They took turns, back and forth, and we oohhhed and aahhed over each and every gift.  Stinkerbell had a lot of moments that looked like this...

MadHatter tried to play it cool(er)...

But couldn't keep the excitement at bay for too long...

   

And once the girls were done, and we had unboxed and batteried what the girls gifts needed, it was our turn.  And we all oooohhhhed and aaaahhhed over our gifts too...

All in all - a Very Merry Christmas was had.  There is a lot more I could post.  And I could wax poetic about how great it was to be home.  But I won't because if we were blessed enough to be home with your family and friends this Christmas, you already know the feeling of being with those you love on such a day.  And I truly hope that you were as blessed as we were.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Ugly Christmas Sweaters

Every year, for as far back as I can remember, my mom has made sugar cutouts for Christmas.  And each year, my brothers and I were asked to decorate said cookies.  With varying results depending on how old we were, what mood we were in and if we felt like decorating.  As we got older, Mom stopped asking.  Because she realized that we would do the decorating, but she wasn't really going to like it.  Over the years we made all black cookies, and cookies so full of silver balls you would chip a tooth if you tried to eat them and my favorite, the brown based cookie that had a little bit of everything thrown on top.  It was our way of saying please don't make us do this... So, years ago, Mom took to making fewer cutouts and decorated them all herself.  

This year we got the best of both worlds - Mom got us to decorate cookies without a single grumble; and we happily joined in.  How did she do it?  She made sweater cutouts and told us the to make them as ugly as we possibly could.  

Challenge accepted.

The supplies were laid out...

The frosting was made...

And the challenge began.  Who would make the ugliest Christmas sweater?  We would just have to wait and see...

We worked hard on creating our ugly.  And we took great care in placing each and every ugly color and sprinkle in exactly the right spot...

Finally, they were all done.  And they were all spectacularly ugly.  We couldn't decide who's was the ugliest so we declared it a 6 way tie.  And then we ate them...

Seems like we all won!

And because we were able to get our uglies out, we were more than willing to stick around and decorate the pretty cookies.  Win, win if you ask me.

It was a brutal battle.  And the counters showed that it wasn't pretty and it wasn't clean.  But all in all, it was a fun hour of unforgettable family time.

I am already dreaming up a design for next years competition.

Our Fourth Year of Fidget

On December 1st, as in each of the past 3 years (see here, here, here, here and here), we welcomed a tiny visitor into our home for the month of December.  She is highly anticipated by MadHatter and Stinkerbell (not so much by Mama) and they can't wait to see how she will arrive or what mayhem she will cause in the course of her stay.  She is in our home for 24 days but she doesn't really watch them to make sure they are being good as much as she just comes into the house to make the girls laugh at her antics.  She is fun and a bit silly and always has a good time.  And so do the girls.  This year was no exception. 

Thanks for another great year of magic and mayhem, Fidget.  We can wait to see you again next year.