Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Then Some

What better way to post Christmas but in one long post.  I'm still tired from the festivities.  It's like I started tired.  Christmas Eve...tired....Christmas Day...tired plus a killer headache...the day after Christmas....even more tired, so tired that I took a nap.

What was with the tiredness this year?  I know my entire family was pooped.  It was a great Christmas though.  Riley had herself a little ball and Madi enjoyed every bit as well.  It was definitely one to remember!

I got myself a new lens, with a check that I received in the mail.  The check may or may not have been intended to be used on the family but I stole it.  All of it.  But I deserve every last penny of this check, so I used it.  ALL ON MYSELF.  I used every last bit for it, plus 3 dollars to cover the 2 day delivery so I'd get it before Christmas.  I love this lens.  It's fun and I'm still learning a ton, but this lens is actually helping me learn the camera better. 

 
On to the pictures.  I didn't take many when it actually mattered.  It's so hard to be in on all the excitement while taking pictures so Christmas morning, my camera was no where to be found.  Just imagine wrapping paper everywhere, kids screaming, me in the corner with a headache, and lots of pajamas.

We'll start with Christmas Eve.

In the morning, we exchanged gifts with our house guests and wore them.


I went to my Mom's to help with the dinner.  I made some enchiladas, and some bloody Mary's.  We cooked, we drank, we be'd merry and bright.

We played an intriguing game of "umbrella", never heard of it?  Well, don't ever play it.  It's annoying. 


We did this while my Mom set yet another gorgeous table.





When I came back home, the girls opened a very special gift from Nana and Granddad.  The Night Before Christmas read to them by Nana and Granddad on recording.  It is so cool.  It actually made me cry.  Such a sweet and thoughtful gift!



Twas the night before Christmas and Santa paid us a visit.  He dropped off some Pj's for all of us at the Kelley household.  He only drops these off for all the "really" good girls and boys.  Did you know that?  It's true.  Really.

We tried to find him in the sky.  But no luck.

Then, the most amazing thing happened.  We put on our pj's and sat as close as we could to each other.  We touched.  We didn't even mind that our legs rubbed together.  It was nice.  And deserves more than one picture.




That night, we headed home with the family to dream of sugar plums/finish wrapping/set the big guy out some saliva filled cookies.

Christmas morning, almost all of us woke up with M&Ms on our night stand and excitement in our bellies.

We couldn't wait to see what Old Nick left for us under the tree.

And in our stockings.

 



Did you know that he left us a note?  On the princess napkin Riley left for him?  She's so thoughtful, and I think he noticed.


After all that excitement, we headed to my Mom's, where I have no pictures of opening up gifts.  But I do have one of a little girl that couldn't stay away from the sweets table.


And some of us in really cool hats looking at really cool Christmas gifts.


And of some of us looking as handsome as ever.


Not to mention a few pics of some sneaky peeps.


Can you see Mr. Sneaky in this picture?  Look closely. 


 And I have some pictures of the hostess with the mostess, and myself.


And that token picture of that favorite Uncle of ours, in that really cool hat. 


I hope you all had a great Christmas.  I can't wait to go around tomorrow and read about all of your festivities.  I'm not going to lie, I've peaked, but I haven't sat down to read everything.

I'll see you all with my coffee in the morning.


Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Call Me a Cookie Snob


It's Christmas time, it's cold, everyone is baking.  A lot of cookies are being made, sugar cookie decorating with the kiddos, tins of cookies are being put together for neighbors and friends.

Last night, I decorated cookies with my kids.  It made me want to scream.  Seriously, I think I did scream a few times.  First I let them cut the cookies out of the dough, big mistake, big, HUGE!  All I did was swat hands away from the excess dough.  Mostly Madi's hands.  She's got quick paws.  How much raw dough they actually ate, I don't know. 


Three batches went in the oven.

Three batches came out of the oven.

Three batches got decorated. 

 It started off okay, I was excited, they were excited...some of us did it as super heroes.

They picked out which cookies cutters they wanted to use.

Snuck some dough.

 When we finally got done with the madness of cutting out the cookies, we made different colored frosting.  Each bowl of frosting had it's own 2 spreaders.  Silly me thought those spreaders would stay in their assigned bowls as to not mix the colors.  Hahaha, so naive I am...so naive.

It was time to decorate.  We took it seriously at first.  I thought Madi was going to decorate a few the way she jumped right in there and started icing her cookie.



Riley was doing pretty good too, she's had a lot of practice at preschool though.

And then it happened.  Three minutes in, I yelled at them both for licking the spreaders and putting them back in the bowls....for playing in the sprinkles....for biting every cookie that came their way...for mixing the spreaders...for frosting their hands instead of the cookies...it always ends up like this.


I know what you are thinking to yourselves, "they are just babies", "they don't know any better", "one day Kristi will laugh about this", "they even look cute when they cry"

These are all valid points.  But, it drove me crazy.  Four hands going every which way can drive a person mad.  Mad I tell you!  You know how I decorate cookies?  Nicely, without a mess, with nice music on.

I don't dump all the sprinkles in the middle of the cookie.  I don't lick my spreaders and decorate the next cookie with a saliva filled/dripping knife.  I just don't.  That's gross. 

I wouldn't have this problem I don't think if I wasn't a perfectionist.  I also wouldn't have this problem if I waited until my kids were old enough to actually decorate the cookies.  You know, like 16 and 14.  Just kidding, like 18 and 16, just kidding again, you know, like never?

You know I'm joking right?  I hope so.  But it still bothers me when it doesn't go as smoothly as it does in my head.  I know they are kids, I know they just want to eat all the goodies I put in front of them, but it always ends up like this...

 With the green spreader in the red bowl, and the red spreader in the white bowl, and...

and fallen sprinkles everywhere, over here, over there, down the hall, down the pants, in the ears...

and faces full of frosting of every color...even though the only cookie she was allowed to eat was frosted in green.

 and hands that could destroy my sofa in 1.25 seconds if I turn my back.

But, after it's all said and done, and we have a nice plate of beautifully decorated cookies,

 I'm always happy that we did it.  And more importantly, so are they...


even if some cookies look like this...

and the kids are so gross and sticky that I have to do this...

and it's such a stressful experience, that I need one of these...

Tis the Season!

Anyone insterested in eating some of these yummy cookies?  Let me know, we have 3 batches, and not all of them are filled with saliva...all though I didn't seperate them, and it will be a guessing game.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Weekend Happenings

This past Saturday, Tim and I hosted our second annual family Christmas dinner.  My Mom was so awesome to watch the kids for me all day on Saturday so that I could finish cleaning and cooking and everything that goes along with having people over for dinner.  Thank you Mom, it helped me out so much!

She also took a few pictures of everything for me, so I can at least blog it!  The past few times I've had people over, I have had no time to take any pictures so I haven't blogged it.  I hate that! 

Let's get into the good stuff.

On the menu...

The Appetizers
Tomato and balsamic bruschetta
Brie and crackers
Tepanade
Antipasto platter

The Dinner
Spicy Artichoke Italian salad
Sausages and Peppers in a white wine sauce
Creamy Asiago and Chicken pasta
Risotto
Garlic and Herb bread

Dessert
Cream puffs
Red velvet cookies (store bought)
Mascarpone cheesecake

We had 12 people for dinner which makes for a long table.  I set my table (which seats 8), for 6 and used the 2 card tables that I later added to both ends of my table for the appetizers.  That way there was still room in there for people to actually walk around.  A little before dinner was ready, I removed the apps and set the other tables up.

It worked out perfectly.

A little visiting before dinner is always a good thing!




A few of my table.  I loved the way it turned out.  Thanks again Mom for taking pictures!

It was a great evening, with so much conversation, good food, and wonderful people.  I am so glad that it's over!  It took me 2 hours the next day to get everything back to normal, not to mention the hour Auntie Laurie took to do as many dishes as she could!  Thanks Auntie! 

Love this picture of the FU (favorite Uncle).

Sunday, Tim and I took the girls to see a movie (Tangled...again) after Madi woke up from her nap.  Boy was it hard taking the girls out in the rain!  First we ran to Target, for sneak in candy, icees, and popcorn.  Yes, I sneak stuff into the movie theater.  I do not wish to spend $30.00 for popcorn and drinks.  No thank you.  I break the rules.  That's right.  Watch out.

The girls were excellent and I would have taken my camera for pictures, but with the rain, umbrellas, and the icees in my purse, I thought it would be a bad idea. 

After the movies we drove through Starbucks to get the girls a hot cocoa and drove down the street in Corona with all the lights, don't know the name of the street but you all know which one I'm talking about.  We were pretty disappointed because half of them had their lights out already (it was 7:30), and the other street had no lights on.  NONE!  What's the deal? 

We are planning on going back on Wednesday night to walk the street with another hot cocoa.  You can never have enough hot cocoa right? 


Can you believe that Christmas is in 5 days? 
Are you done with your shopping?
Your wrapping?
Are you ready?

I am!  Except for the internet purchases that should get here today and the last minute gift my Daddy-o brought over yesterday to wrap for my Mom.  The cutoff for wrapping was Friday, but I'll make an exception.  He really needs to start getting his shopping done earlier.

6 more days to enjoy those Christmas tunes.  Better get your listening in.  I am.
 

Me

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I'm Kristi, the wife of one very lucky and handsome husband, and mother to two beautiful little girls. I'm honest and sarcastic, funny and easy going. I love to eat and love to hate that I love butter. And wine. And did I mention butter? I'm always learning new things, happy to lend a hand, and love my life. This is a blog of my family and the day to day crazy that we call Rush Hour. I hope while you are here that you enjoy yourself and come back often!

The Rush Family

The Rush Family

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