Holiday Festivities, Part 3

Soooo... Blogger has been cramping my style the past week or two!  I normally blog using Internet Explorer and awhile back I noticed that there suddenly wasn't a button available on the image upload screen to SELECT the images I wanted to upload.  It just wasn't there.  I puttered around on Blogger and found that this was a "known problem" and was "being looked into", but in the meantime they suggested switching to HTML to compose posts or using Google Chrome or some other thing.  And... um... I'm never going back to IE for blogging again.  First of all, with Google Chrome, my select image button was back.  And secondly, I couldn't even select the next image before the previous one finished uploading!!!  That NEVER happens!  I feel like a whole new world of faster blogging has opened up for me.  ;-)  And ya, I really don't know anything about computers in general... but I know that it's working now.  :)  So there.

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Back to the post at hand...

We hosted our annual Pajama Brunch with friends on the morning of Saturday, December 15th.  This is one of my favorite parts of the holiday season.  Each year, I feel like I try to over think rethink the menu and burden myself with all the appropriate variety while still making it worthy of being considered a feast.  But no more!  This year, the menu was perfect and reasonably manageable and everyone agreed that it should be repeated from now on.  I made a potato fritatta with feta and scallions from the new Smitten Kitchen cookbook, a cinnamon french toast casserole, a simple fruit salad of clementine wedges and banana slices, and cooked some thick slices of center cut bacon.  We had several varieties of juices and Kelly of course brought her frosted cinnamon rolls that are to die for.  It was a success!

Hi  :) 

Baby steps. 

A poor, dark picture that does not do justice to the fritatta. 

My favorite group of companions.  Some of the best people you'll ever meet. 

The kidlins were set up in the kitchen again.  Will didn't want to sit at the "girls table" because they were "troublemakers" (HA!) so he sat at his own table. 

Mike and Craig!  Couldn't see you two very well in the previous group pic at the table. 

Waiting (not so patiently) for gift opening to begin. He just sat there and looked at the presents until we all finished eating.  :)

Gift opening is just for the kiddos nowadays.  It used to be an exchange with the adults, but we've long since dropped that.

This next part isn't always an annual thing, but it's EXTRA EXTRA special when it happens.  I'm sure I've mentioned before that one of the Mikes is an incredibly talented woodworker.  He's made us extremely beautiful pieces of art in the past including our bread box that sits prominently displayed on our counter, my recipe box and also a wine bottle stopper.  This year, we couldn't wait to see what he'd packaged in a large box addressed to Kelly, Julie and me.

They were CLOCKS!!!  Would you look at this thing?  It's gorgeous and made of several types of specialty wood grains (if that's the correct term to use).  Looks like it has kind of an Asian flare and we LOVE them!!!  Thank you, Mike!!  Your talents and generosity are so very much appreciated.  There is nothing like a handmade gift.

And now, the ritualistic guy/girl pics.  We took a group pic too but it's on Jill's camera yet as she was the only one who knew how to work the automatic timer this year.  :)  And there are 2-3 of each group below.  Hard to get a perfect shot with kiddos. 

Soph - in love with one of her new gifts.  The kids also ADORED their new coloring books and crayons/markers. 

This was such a cute photo op of Kelly and Veronica. 

On Tuesday, December 18th, our babysitter Lisa hosted an impromptu holiday party for her families and gave gifts to all her little ones.  We have quite a big group now!

Back row:  Will, Jax, Lincoln and Jagger.

Front row:  Stella, Teagan, Cora, Mya, Charlize holding Rya, and Sophie. 

And then with Lisa incorporated into the picture.  This is random, but I really envy Lisa's beautiful skin tone and complexion.  She looks so young, I think!  Anyway, her little ones adore her and are so blessed to be cared for in her home.  

Sophie probably about peed her pants when she saw this.  Strawberry Shortcake!!!  Her top-rated love these days. 

And Will got a robot/Transformer type toy that he was ecstatic about as well.

Back at home that night, we gave baths and then read our nightly Advent book before bedtime.  It was a bit of a later night for a Tuesday!

On Thursday (the 20th), my sister Casey hosted a Pajama Movie night for our families and our friends the Garmans.  Casey had all the fixins for homemade individual pizzas and we brought veggies and fruits and sides.  The kids had a floor picnic in the kitchen while the adults floated around and visited.  Casey also served hot cocoa with marshmallows and some super delicious desserts while we watched The Polar Express on a big cuddle pad (filled with blankets and pillows) on the living room floor.  After a very brief time, there was more playing than movie-watching going on, but it was a great night!  (Until Sophie hid and freaked us all out because we couldn't find her... but that's another story.)  Sorry these pictures are AWFUL quality.  They were taken on my phone with a flash because I forgot my camera.  How is that possible???   

 

Thanks Casey and Wes for hosting!  We'd love to do this again sometime!