Christmas

I think I may have made too many Christmas cookies this year. Considering the fact that we just moved, so we don't know anybody yet. Meaning there was nobody to share them with. So, um hubs and I ate almost all of the cookies ourselves. It all started the week after we moved in and my Mom came for a visit. While she was here we made a TON of Christmas cookies. We made three batches of sugar cookies and some oreo dippers. Then after she left I made another batch of sugar cookies with my SIL and kids. Then I made some more oreo dippers and finally I made some chewy chocolate drops.
The kids really enjoyed making the sugar cookies with Grandma. I'm not sure why both of my kids have no pants on. I'm sure it had something to do with Grandma visiting and the kids running wild.

Alex would get so excited every time he cut-out a cookie. He would proudly hold up his cookie and say "LOOK!" Of course this resulted in most of his cookies looking more like a blob then anything else.

Hannah was so serious about cutting out the cookies. She would get upset if her cookie didn't turn out perfect. It was kind of cute and scary at the same time.

We waited to ice the cookies until Zander took his nap. I'm not sure why we did that. Maybe because I am smart bad mom and didn't want to have to clean up the mess he would make.

These are some of Hannah's beautiful creations. She worked so hard and used almost an entire bottle of sprinkles on her creations. When we were finished she said that she wanted to give some to B (my brother's girlfriend) buy not Matt (my brother). So we wrapped up a plate and sent some to "B ONLY!"

The next day we made the oreo dippers. Alex worked so hard creating his oreo ball. Only they did not turn out very round;)

Hannah loved squishing the dough together to start the ball. It was so fun watching these two make cookies.

We had a hard time finding a tree this year. Normally we would go to an awesome tree farm where we cut our own. This year since we were new to the area we were not sure where to go. Hubs was sort of a scrooge and did not want to mess with finding a place, he wanted to just get an artificial tree. I love real trees, so I vetoed the idea and he told me that it would be my job to find one then. So, my Mom and I trekked out to find the perfect tree. However the first place we went to was outrageously expensive. I refuse to pay more than $40 for a tree that is only going to be up for a short period of time. So, then we went to a nursery nearby. They did not have a very good selection, so I said we should go home and do some research. I found a couple of places online and then off we went. However, when we left the house it started raining. Yuck. We didn't want to take the kids out looking for a tree in the rain, but we decided we would drive and find the place anyway and hopefully it would stop raining by then. On the way we passed Lowe's and my Mom saw that they had trees. We decided to stop in and see what they had. We ended up finding one, it was kind of short but I prefer fat trees over tall trees anyway so we decided to get it. Somehow, in all of that madness we ended up forgetting to check the trunk. Big mistake, as it was very crooked.

Shortly after we put up the tree it toppled over smashing some of my favorite ornaments. I was so worried that it would fall again that I decided we would have an old fashioned tree. Complete with popcorn and candy canes. Hannah and I really enjoyed stringing the popcorn together. However, she lost interest before we were done and I had to finish it myself. Which was kind of boring, but it was SO easy to take down the tree this year that it was worth it!

Christmas morning I made the kids wait on the steps while I got the camera's ready. The were so adorable and so patient. I had charged the batteries the night before, however I forgot to check the tape on the video camera and ran out of film before they even made it down the stairs. So they had to wait some more while I ran around trying to find a new tape.

We had a relaxing Christmas morning at home. The kids were so much fun. Although Hannah was kind of confused because we gave her lots of presents and Santa only gave her one. He was supposed to give her lots. She kept asking why we gave her presents and why Santa only gave her one.

Stockings were opened last. I managed to get both kids to pause long enough to snap a picture. However I am a little sad because I was trying to take video and pictures by myself so I didn't end up with very many good shots of the kids opening their presents.

After a leisurely morning we packed up the kids and headed to my parents house for about an hour, then we headed over to Tony's parents for the rest of the day. We spent Thursday night and Friday night at Tony's parents house, then we headed over to my parent's house on Saturday for my family Christmas. We had some drama on Christmas Day involving family. I can't really go into it here because I'm sure the person who it involves reads this. I will say that it involved a little miscommunication, too high of expectations and a little bit of selfishness. All of it resulted in Tony and I deciding that next year Christmas Day is OURS. We will not be making any plans on that day other then spending OUR time how we choose. If that means we stay home most of the day or travel all around the country it will be up to us how we spend it.