Christmas in a Flash

Christmas seemed to come and go this season. Here is a bit of an overview!

Preparation

This was the first year that Jackson was able to take part in the preparation of Christmas. He helped decorate "his" tree with little Peanuts Nativity ornaments. Troy shared all this Peanuts Christmas decorations with Jackson and there were even some he could play with!

Jackson was also able to help with some holiday baking. We pulled a chair up to the counter and he helped me make chocolate brownies and frosting. He was really good at holding the measuring cup while I measured ingredients and helping me stir everything. His specialty, though, was the taste-testing the frosting! I did a lot of "baking" this season. For some reason, I really, really enjoyed it. I found a few recipes that turned out really well. One of my favorites was the Oreo Truffles. They were really rich, but absolutely perfect with a glass of milk! I also made some Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies that were delicious. I suspect these delicious desserts may be the cause of my lack of weight loss this holiday season!

Parties!

We had a few parties to attend this season. We hosted our 4th Annual Tacky Ski Sweater Caroling Party. That was a success, although, Troy and I were very tired after it and decided to do this tradition every-other year, perhaps. I know all you party-goers would be disappointed to hear that! For this party, everyone (or almost everyone) came to our place sporting their tackiest of tacky sweaters. We had a contest for the tackiest sweaters. Tim and Michelle were our finalist, and Michelle was voted the winner. We also went to a near-by nursing home and sang Christmas Carols. This was my favorite part of the night. I enjoy the smiles and reactions we get from the people in the nursing home.

We also attended our 12th Annual Citrus Group Party. I look forward to this party every year. This is a yearly get-together of the "Citrus Group" (a group of Troy's friends from college) and their wives. This party is always fun because all his friends have really become my friends too. Kimm always does a great job of hosting! We ate dinner, talked, laughed, cried (well only some of the kids, who will remain nameless). The kids decorated gingerbread men (Thanks, Tess!). We also had a gift exchange and the kids had a used book exchange. All together, as it is every year, it was great fun!

The Mission Inn

Every year, we try to make it to the Mission Inn to look at the beautiful light display there. This year, we actually made it to the lighting of the Mission Inn! We went with Joey and Kirsty and met both of our families down there. Jackson really enjoyed the fireworks. We also had the opportunity to go down to the Mission two more times with friends. Every year it seems there are more lights up! Apparently,

there was over three and a half million lights on the Mission Inn for the 2009 Festival of Lights. Amazing! The only critique I have for the Festival of Lights is that they keep their stores in the downtown mall open later! We were trying to find a place to eat around 7pm on a weeknight and every restaurant was closed! It seems to me that they are missing out on a lot of business!

Presents

It has become somewhat of a tradition to give our families framed photos of us for Christmas. This time around, I wanted the photos to be special and creative, so I asked my brother-in-law, David to take them. They turned out well! I'm posting some of my favorites. To wrap the framed photos, I purchased a roll of plain brown paper for 25 cents, and a set of finger paints from Target. I rolled the paper out on the floor, put the paint on paper plates, put Jackson in some old clothes, and let him have a go at decorating the paper himself. I loved to see his creative side come out! He got paint all over himself, me, the kitchen floor, and, of course, the wrapping paper. It was well worth it because each recipient of a photo frame also got a little masterpiece from Jackson! I may make this a tradition as well!

Family

The holiday season is always a fun time to get together with extended family. Troy's aunt and uncle from Missouri came down for a visit the week of Christmas. We had a blast going to their favorite sandwich shop, D'elias Grinders, which, I'm going to say has wonderful sandwiches, my favorite being the Chicken BLT. Its always a treat to go there!
We also went to Logan's Candy Shop where we saw candy canes being made. This was very interesting to watch and we got fresh, warm samples at the end of the tour. I will never eat a cold candy cane again! (I hope Angie doesn't mind, I borrowed the photo from her blog!)

Dress

Madelyn's first Christmas dress...sweet!

Christmas Day

Sorry folks...Christmas Day deserves a blog post of it's own, so I will post that ASAP! :)