Christmas 2010

This Christmas we were anticipating the most excitement out of the kids! They are 2 and 4 and the thought of presents sends them into a tailspin! You would think that they just won the billion dollar lottery or something?

Lets see if I can re-cap the events of Christmas Eve, Eve (the 23rd) through Christmas day.

Me and Aunt Julie

Every year we have to share the holidays between our two families. However, it makes it really difficult when you add at least two more families into the mix. There is not only us, we have the The Mizerany’s, The Murphy’s and The Banta’s to schedule time with. It can get a little hectic figuring it out, but we get it done each year. We had spent Thanksgiving with the Banta family this year, so we were to be spending Christmas with my family. We worked it out, so that Julie, Steve, the kids and the Banta’s (Nene and Poppy) would be coming over to our house for dinner and present opening on the 23rd. Julie is always so gracious to cook for everyone each year, so we decided to have them to our home this year! If you have ever eaten at the Mizerany’s house than you would know that Julie and Steve are culinary experts!  Anyhow, Brian and I love to entertain our friends but, we no way cook like Julie and Steve. Brian decided that we would smoke a pork tenderloin, make his mom’s famous potato dish ( which apparently is someone else’s famous potato dish), rice, salad and rolls. Well, he got this recipe from a friend for the pork tenderloin and it called for the meat to be wrapped in bacon. Sounds yummy...right? Well, here is how the dinner went down...the tenderloin got a little burned because of the bacon grease...we were able to salvage it though...it is ok honey... a valiant A for effort. We sit down to dinner and everything looked good. Christian and Poppy did our blessing and it was time to EAT!

Hiding from Poppy!

Crazy Cousins!

Love my cousin!

I am pretty sure it was the first bite for my dear mother-in-law, Debbie. She started to choke and we all thought that maybe the food had gone down the wrong way? When a few minutes had passed and she was not better, we were not sure what had happened? Debbie was in pain and her own family thought she was being dramatic! We should all win family of the year awards...Anyway, we had been trying everything to help. Then somebody realized there were toothpicks in our meat? HUH...What? Oh no, the toothpicks had all thinned out and frayed from the cooking and Brian had not taken them out of the meat! Now, this could of been an error anyone could have made, but a bad one at that! Now, we all thought she must have swallowed a tooth pick and we were going to try to get it out! Here is how that went down. Debbie tried drinking water, but it hurt really bad. Then Lynn and Julie tried to gag her, so she would throw it up! Then the drinker in the family (guess whom that would be) suggest doing shots of 151 to make her vomit! Poor Debbie...it was a nightmare. I guess about 30 minutes later, Lynn and Debbie were headed to the Emergency Room. We realized there was nothing we could do, so we all stayed behind and waited to hear from them. We continued with dinner...very cautiously I might add and then we opened gifts from the Mizerany’s and Banta’s. We would not get to see Julie, Steve, Bennett and Pres again before Christmas! The kids enjoyed this very much and then later played and played till it was very clear bedtime was approaching or been past already.

Cool Dinosaur Aunt Julie!

The Crazy Starts!

Love Playing Dress Up!

Flying Once!

Flying Twice!

Three Times!

      

 We had heard from Lynn a few times during the night. In fact, Debbie did swallow a toothpick! They were having to sedate her and remove it from her throat! The toothpick had been lodged sideways in her throat...with the meat still attached in the middle! Ouch! I think the valuable lesson learned is...make sure to chew your food! :) Oh yeah, and if you eat at the Banta’s make sure you check the meat for toothpicks before you eat it! :) Just kidding honey!




CHRISTMAS EVE

We went to the early service at church at 4:30, which Christian slept entirely through, but none the less was beautiful. I have to tell you that are Pastor has such a way with words. He moves me to be a better person every time he speaks! The service ran a little long, as always on Christmas eve. We had dinner reservations with my family and the Banta’s too. We were going to this great Italian place called Bellini’s. The restaurant is a little upscale for children, but they have this great back room that works out perfectly for the kids. They are able to get up and run around and not bother anybody else in the restaurant! That in turn makes for a more enjoyable meal for mommy and daddy! However, poor Debbie was on a liquid diet only from the night before.

We were supposed to have 15 people at dinner that night with all the families, but it did not work out that way. Everyone was getting sick. We had sick cousins, sick mom and sick kids too. Both our children had come down with the Flu? There ended up being 9 of us and we had a great time! As you can see from the pictures some adults might have had a little to much vino! Especially when you are playing ring around the rosy and rolling around on the floor with a toddler...Punkin! :)

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Batman House
Lately, our children have been sleeping really late...like 9:30 late! I know most people would welcome this behavior, but it drives me crazy. During the holidays the kids schedules are so off and they end up staying up WAY past their bedtimes. On Christmas morning there was no exception tho this at all! The anticipation of Santa Claus and what he might have left for the kids, well it was lacking to say the least. Brian and I got up, dressed, made mimosas and breakfast. Still no sign of the kids stirring...so we waited and we waited. Debbie and Lynn were staying over at Julie and Steve’s house, but wanted to come over in the morning to watch the kids open gifts. When they got here the kids were still asleep! It was around 8:00am...We decided to wake them up...it was going to be a long day!

My KItchen!

I video record the kids every Christmas morning going to the tree to see what Santa left for them. I keep waiting for the day that they will come running out screaming and yelling with excitement, but we have not gotten there yet! All I get is sleepy eyed children wandering into the dining room...half asleep! It takes them a few moments to even realize what is going on and that they have been left presents by Santa! :) I know this will probably come in the next few years, but I guess I am still a kid at heart! I get so excited for them because I love Christmas myself!

The big Santa gifts this year were: Henley got a kitchen and an American Doll Baby, Christian got a Batman House with all the Good and Bad guys to go with it and a Reading Tag Learning Game. They of course got a lot more, but I am not going to write it all down. It was too much, but hopefully they know how blessed and loved they are! Nene and Poppy watched them open their gifts from them...since the ER visit a few nights before prohibited it sooner. Debbie and Lynn completed Henley’s Baby fetish by supplying her with a cradle and highchair! I tell you that little girl was in heaven playing with her babies! Christian received some much needed clothing, since he grew 2 inches in 4 months!

A book from Nene and Poppy!

Ooh...nail polish!

Even Jetta enjoyed her present!

When we were all done opening gifts at our home, we packed up and went over to my parents for more fun! My poor mother was sick and I am not sure if she remembers much about Christmas Day at all...:) We took turns opening gifts and everyone had fun. There are so many people opening gifts, that I can not keep track of who got what. My Aunt, Heather, Mom, Dad and us were all there. Sorry guys...my memory can not go back that far right now! However, everyone loved what they got! :)

The rest of the day was spent cooking Christmas dinner. This is usually my moms job, but she was laid up in the bed. So all the ladies pitched in and made dinner this Christmas Night. It turned out very good...if I say so myself! :)

Christmas turned out great this year, chaos and all! However, with one exception...but he was with us in spirit!