Twas the Night before CHRISTmas

After our friends left we did presents.

We always let the kids exchange presents between themselves!

Waiting but not Patiently!


Spencer gave Britt this!



Brittnee gave Carter this!

Carter gave this to Spencer!




Of course the Annual PJ's from the Parents!



Now off to bed so that Santa can come!

Loves, hugs, and visions of sugar plum kisses,

EMILY

CHRISTmas Eve PM

For Christmas Eve I cooked a ham, sour cream tatos, rolls, had chips, cookies, m&m's!

We invited some friends over for dinner and games!

First we enjoyed our feast!

The kids enjoyed some Bakugan.
We played a little Mario on the Wii!
Then we played Scene It!
All the while tracking SANTA on Norad.com!
What a fun night!

Loves, hugs, and Wii wishes,

EMILY

Cookies for Santa

I have a confession. I am so not the mom who rolls out cookie dough and uses cutters to make cute shapes and then bake them and then frost the cookies! That is so not me. I am the mom who goes to the store and buys the perfectly shaped, perfectly frosted and decorated cookies! Well not this time! A few weeks ago my boys went to a friends house and the mom let them do the real "cookies"! They bought them home and we were impressed! I decided to give it a try!

It seemed like a great thing to do on Christmas Eve Morning to pass the time! I kinda cheated..I bought the dough but we still rolled it our and used cutters (thanks Dollar Tree)!

There was flour everywhere! The kids were a mess! The kitchen was hot and a mess!

The kids loved each and every minute of it!

Finally 3 big pans and 2 little pans later the cookies are cooked!

We went to a matinee while the cookies cooled!

Then home to decorate the cookies! They were great!

Daddy joined in the fun of decorating too.....he decorated Brittnee!

What a fun thing to do.....once a year on

Christmas Eve Day!

Another task to cross off the list!

Loves, hugs, and floury kisses!

EMILY

Letters to Santa

This year the kids took it upon themselves to do thier letters!

We usually do it as a family but this year was crazy (again)!

They wrote thier letters and begged us to take them to the giant SANTA!

SIGNED and DELIVERED!

Another task done 1000 more to go!

loves, hugs, and Santa Letter wishes,

EMILY

Neighbor Gifts!

This year I decided on my Neighbor Gifts early! I decided to put candy in STAR dishes with a Great Christmas star poem. Every time I went to the Dollar Store and they had them, I bought a few star dishes. Now its the week before Christmas and I have to do the candy. I decided to do my Almond Toffee Balls. They take a lot of powdered sugar!

Add some butter and some sweetened condensed milk!


Scoop them onto a pan and let them freeze! Roll into balls! This is sticky!
Finally dip in chocolate. At this point I am in tears and wondering why I do this to myself!

Finally they are dipped (not beautifully of course!) and rolled in nuts!

More COLD time!

Finally they are divided out into their "Stars"

Wrapped and tagged!

All ready to deliver!

We only gave out about 9 dishes plus a ton of little bags of candy! The kids love delivering the treats! I love that they are gone and I don't have to think of them anymore. Seriously this year if I can find a chocolate fountain for cheap I might make candy next year!

Loves, hugs, and chocolate dipped kisses!

Emily