Last Pics of Christmas

I finally got around to taking down Christmas around here last night. I'm sad it's come and gone. I don't miss the money sucking driving consumerism part of it but I do miss feeling festive and enjoying the spirit that Christmas time brings. Oh well, the days seem to fly by now that I'm older. I'm sure it will be here again before I know it.

Anyhow, here's the rest of the Holiday Roundup.

On Christmas Eve, right before we sent the kids to bed, we sprinkled the reindeer food in the lawn. All the kids took turns and I'm sure Rudolph was very grateful for the treat.
Then as we went inside to prepare a plate of cookies for Santa, we heard scratching and squeaking at the door! The kids ran outside and look what was there!
PJ's from the Elves!!! How sweet of them to always bring the kids new jammies on Christmas Eve. This is the 4th year now that they remembered.
Looks like the elves didn't forget me either!
Now get to bed!
The jammies were actually given to me by my next door neighbor Marcy, who is not an elf. She found these on Black Friday for $3 each!

Now on to Christmas morning. Let the ravenous paper shredding begin.

Here's Tabby opening the famed Zhu Zhu Pets:
Gunner was excited about his new binkies:
And his new ball:
Here is Dale with a gift for me. Notice the "Dale Morris Special" wrapping job. I'm a lucky gal.
I especially liked how the bow was attached:
Ella Rose was excited about her gift:
Here's Rex with one of his faves:

Note to self. Do not use such tough wrapping paper next year. Also, I had no Scotch tape when I wrapped these so instead of buying some, I went on the cheap and just used the clear packing tape that I already had. That with the thick wrapping paper made a lot of the gifts almost impenetrable.

After that we headed to my parents to open gifts with the family and eat breakfast. It was delish.

Check it:
Every year my sis makes this unbelivable butterscotch pull-apart. I requested that she put a rediculous amount of glaze on it. Devine. Here's my dad in his red sweater. He's had this thing since he was 14 and has worn it for every Christmas that I can remember. It kinda looks like the sweater's sleeves grew and the waist shrank. Wouldn't be Christmas without the red sweater!
After breakfast, we took a family picture in my mom's art studio. It's a downright Christmas miracle that everyone is looking at the camera. Gunner looks rather merry, doesn't he? Ella Rose just won't give you a regular smile. She thinks it's funny now but I bet she won't think it's so funny when she is a teenager and I show her crazy face pictures to all her friends for revenge.

Then it was time to open gifts again.

Grandpa loved his Beatles set from Grandma:
Madeline liked her pony. Grandma was excited that a grandkid finally liked horses.
Tinker Toys!
Tabby collected all the ribbons for us:
Magi made my girls these darling dresses out of T-shirts:
Madeline with her daddy:
Ella loved her ballerina costume. Here she is dancing for us:
Looks like the dancing is over:

That's it! We're moving on!

Stuff That We Did

Sheesh, I haven't blogged in a while. Here's my make up post.

You are gonna laugh when I tell you why I haven't spent much time with my computer. I''m cheating on it with Mario Kart. You will notice that my last post was December 24th. The day before Mario Kart came into my life. Dale and I got the kids a Wii for Christmas. They really like it and play it a lot but unfortunately, Mama got addicted too and it's monopolized my free time in such a way that blogging and FB are mere acquaintances and we used to be totally hooked up. So now I'm going to try and make it up to my blog by giving you the Christmas run-down.

To get us in the Christmas spirit, we had some neighbors come over a few weeks before Christmas to make gingerbread houses. That's Janeice with her kids on the left and Marcy with her kiddos on the right.
Marcy's boys Aidan and Declan.
Ella doing her share as the official frosting taster.
Tabby worked so hard to get it just right.
Janeice's kids Hadley, Davin, and Addy.
Our finished product. Tabby put lots of detail into it. Wonder who she got that from....
Another fun thing I did with the kids was make reindeer food for the neighbors and for ourselves to sprinkle on the lawn just before bedtime on Christmas Eve. What do reindeers eat you might ask? Well, they like a simple combo of oatmeal and glitter. Yum.
A fun poem attached:

On Christmas Eve, we did our traditional ice skating fiesta at Polar Ice. Ella was pretty much hopeless out there still but Rex ended up doing it all on his own. Last year, he could only get around with help (ouch, my back) or by hanging on the side going at a snail's pace. Tabby did really well too.

Tabby and myself:
Ella got some help with cousin Rachel (right) and her friend:
But this is how she spent most of her time out on the ice:
So glad the Andersons could join us! Here's Heidi and Tucker:
Chris and Tatum.
Rex, being super proud of himself.
Shephard and cousin Kinley. Look at that cute red nose!
Me and miss Ella. I could only take her around once that way. My back and arms were not cool with it.
Miss Diva Divapants herself:
Here's some sweet footage:

Notice Rex's awesome skate/walk style:



Here's Tabby. All business:



I got lots more pics. They will have to wait till tomorrow. This is seriously cutting in on my Mario Kart time.