It’s Christmas Day!

By the time hubby and I had rolled out of bed (grandma, auntie and auntie’s boyfriend were already up/here), the kids had all sorted the gifts into piles.  So I didn’t have an idyllic little photo of all the packages under the tree.  Ah well, it happens.


He was kind of happy.  He *loves* cars.  And Legos.


I have no idea what the 10yo was looking at, but hey, this mostly clear photo has all the kids in it.


Grandma buys them matching shirts about once a year or so.  Why yes, I still stick my kids in matching shirts while out and about a bunch of the time.  Easier for the perpetual head counts.


His reaction was awesome.  He was beyond excited/thrilled/you name it.

He cracked me up.

The 7yo’s hilariously fun and excited reaction to the Infinity game thingie he got.  He was thrilled.


The younger two attacking gifts.  They didn’t get *as* much for Christmas, but they were happy.  They have the benefit of older siblings and the siblings’ toys, they’re not exactly starting from scratch toy-wise.  Well, and we’re mean, we make them share a lot of the time.


He got Hungry, Hungry Hippos.  Was his gift from his siblings.  Super cute, he was excited.

Hubby got me one of the new insulated Klean Kanteens.  And when they say it keeps things hot for up to 6 hours?  They’re not kidding.  Kept a drink hot for me for like 3 hours, and not lukewarm, either.  The cafe cap pops apart nicely for cleaning, too.


Then a new mixing bowl to take the place of the 11yo purple one.  Eeep!  I’ll likely start putting it through it’s paces within the week after I finally wash it.  Oh, Grandma got me a cute butter dish, too.  Because she knows we use butter.  Lots of butter.


Hubby also hit the half off Tattler sale, after some slight nudging from me.  Odds are I’m not going to run out of lids next year.  I hope.  I ran out of them this year and had to start using disposable lids again during my last few canning sprees.

I don’t have any fabulous photos of hubby’s gifts, but he got a few pretty cool ones if I may say so.  Made him a perler bead Husqvarna chainsaw ornament, got him a few hard-to-find books by one of our favorite authors, and a few gift cards to a particular restaurant he likes to frequent.  But there’s a few gifts that haven’t made their way to my doorstep yet, and I’m plotting something fabulous for his birthday that’s coming up shortly.  Who knows, maybe he’ll have a pedicure day or something.  *snort*  🙂

Christmas Eve

We usually let the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve.


Grandma had brought more than  a few gifts though, so we let them open several on Christmas Eve so they wouldn’t be as overloaded on Christmas day.


Yup, I was a mean mommy and made them get showered and dressed in fresh pajamas.  Mommy was *not* on the ball, so there were no new pajamas.  Just clean ones.


He loves his LEgo train, so more tracks?  He’s happy.


Grandma got him some books.  He’s *really* starting to sound out and decode things all too often…


Grandma got him a John Deere tractor.  He was so excited. 


They were cute.

Almost Christmas time!

Jarboxes had an awesome sale a little while back.  I, ahem, took advantage of it.  Still need to get them all sorted and organized and put where I want them, but one thing at a time.

Hubby and I got this bowl as a wedding gift many moons ago.  I used it all. the. time.  It’s the perfect size for a single or almost double batch of most things, actually fits in the microwave (what, you’ve never forgotten to soften butter before?), has a good heft when you’re mixing and rotating it around, and it’s not metal (I can’t stand the sound of metal on metal with my hand mixer and stainless steel bowls).  It’s been used and abused, a lot.

It finally had enough.  It’s seen so, so, so many batches of pancake batter, waffle batter, endless muffins (remember the day of 209 muffins?), cookie batters, meatball and meatloaf mixing, you name it.  It had a long, full life I suppose.  Kinda made me sad because it’s been so good, but I also no longer talk to the person that gave it to us, so…  Guess it was time.

Not the clearest photo, but this is an ornament I made for an ornament exchange.  I saw some adorable monster stuffed animals on Pinterest, and decided to make an ornament.  It was fought over at the [white elephant type] exchange, cracked me up.   I need to make a few more for each of the kids, but one thing at a time.  We’ll probably leave our tree up a few days past Christmas anyway.

Spent some time reorganizing the pantry.  Holy cow, it’s some hefty work.  I was sore after that seven hour day.  It’s slowly starting to look prettier/more organized.

Our yearly cruise to the North Pole.  These kids crack me up.  I swear, the 3yo cannot do a normal smile.  Ever.  😀

Yup, just a normal, working kitchen.  With no counter space.  Sigh.  There’s always something going on in here.  At this moment, a double batch of waffles, (lots of) dirty dishes, and a canner that needs emptied and put away.