Christmas 2010

Our Christmas always starts with mass on Christmas Eve. My favorite part is always watching the kids and hearing their thoughts on the meaning of Christmas.

Afterwards we headed to my grandma's house, then a friend's house and then home. I spend an hour or two wrapping presents that should've been wrapped weeks before.

I swear next year I will not leave wrapping til the last minute. Sure.



Christmas morning we spent a bit of time at home admiring our little peanut and exchanging our gifts.

Oh how little b loves big B.



We were at mom's not too much later ready to open presents for Peanut. You can see how thrilled he was as I couldn't get his eyes open :)



My nephew got to open presents for his own peanut as well.



Auntie Debbie the baby stealer. Seriously, if you have a baby... beware.



There was a serious game of Jenga going on outside!

Family, tons of food, mimosa's and humongous Jenga. Oh and weather warm enough that we could be outside playing.

What more could you ask for?



Although, it would be nice to have a white Christmas. I suppose if you were used to snow than Christmas wouldn't be the same without it.

Whoever topples the Jenga better watch out!



Mary, Joseph and the baby chees-us! Get it? Get it? Baby cheeses. Get it? OK say it out loud. Get it?

It's a holiday tradition and we haven't been struck by lightening once.

I always steal the baby Jesus and replace him with cheese before my mom comes and puts Jesus back.

Anyone?

Alright, well we think it's funny. Sacrilegious but funny. I'm pretty sure God doesn't mind. I think. I mean, I know he has a sense of humor.



B, Peanut and I loaded up and headed to Fresno to meet up with B's family. We don't usually do this but really wanted the family to meet the Peanut. It took us about 4 1/2 hours. With the exception of the feeding/changing stop the Peanut slept the whole way.



A very special meeting of B's Poh Poh (grandmother) and the Peanut. B is such a proud daddy, it warms my heart to see him show off his son.



B's parents and his niece and nephew had already met Peanut when he was just a week old.



It's amazing how quickly babies grow so it's like seeing a new baby with each visit.

Peanut's telling them what's been going on in the last month or so.



Auntie Kami and Uncle Les were the first ones to meet him when we came in.

What a proud auntie! I'm positive she has more pictures of Peanut up on her facebook than I do... and that's saying a lot :)



Peanut was passed around and just happy as can be to get so much attention.

Meanwhile we ate and ate and ate some more. Then we slept and got up and ate again.



Three generations with the Peanut being the only one thus far to continue the family name.



One last picture with the kids and we were headed back to Orange County.



We had a wonderful Christmas full of family and full of firsts.

I cannot wait until next year!

It's all over now

We had a wonderful Christmas that I will be sharing with you just as soon as I retrieve the camera I left at my parents.

It's amazing I even remember to take the baby.

My dad always loads the baby, so maybe it's that he always remembers to send the Peanut home with me.



Until then I have a few pictures and a few videos to share.

It's all over now that I've figured out how to share video!



I love the expressions on his face and the way he raises his eyebrows.



You know it's bad when you post a video that is over a minute of nothing but the same sound repeated over and over. Can you tell I just had my first child?

I just think it's so cute how he purses his lips to mimic me and make that oooo sound!

oooooooo.
oooooooo!
oooooooo.
oooooooo?

Santa Baby

Merry



Christmas!

From, Me, B and the Peanut!

My present is under the tree

This year Christmas just snuck right up on me. It feels different than it has in the past.



I already have everything that I want.



Looking back at last year I may have said.... "I really wanted to soak in this first Christmas together. A Christmas with just the two of us. Who knows, maybe next year we'll have our own baby santa."

I was already plotting then.



Now we do have our own sweet little baby.

This year I can just set him down beneath the tree like the little gift he is.



I can watch him as he takes it all in, mesmerized by the lights and ornaments.

I love to look in his eyes and see the reflection of the twinkling tree lights. For now, this is the magic of Christmas for him.



It will be a quiet, calm Christmas Eve unlike one we've ever had before or one we'll ever have again.

Quiet and calm in between feedings and diaper changes, of course.



I wish you all a wonderful Christmas full of love and magic.

The Cookie Table

I'm not sure how it happened but at some point I took over the holiday baking. My mom always did it before and then it must have been the first year I wasn't managing at Roy's when I was home that I took over. I can't remember but it's become quite a production.

I start waaaaay ahead of the party, like in October. I bake and freeze what I can and then bake the last minute stuff in the days before the party.



Here you see the Revel Bars, my mom's Peanut Kutter kisses, Chocolate Peppermint Decadence and the Cranberry Orange Chews.

I made less cookies this year than the last few years but there were still a ton.



My mom sets up the tablescape and I just add in the cookies. Here are Spritz, Rum Balls, Cherry Winks and some store bought Danish and chocolate cookies.



In the middle we have Lemon Bars Deluxe and store bought fruit cake.

The fruit cake actually went really fast. Do you like fruit cake?



My mom's fudge. She saved the spoon for me to lick. I love the fudge.

I like it without nuts but some say it's not fudge unless it has nuts in it.



Salted Butterscotch Shortbread bars and more Rum Balls.



On the bottom left you see the Easy Peasy Macaroons and the Chocolate-covered Cherry Cookies. On the right are the sugar cookies my niece Makayla and I spent waaaaay too long decorating.



Last but not least the Almond Window Cookies with both apricot and raspberry filling.

I have a sugar high just thinking about it.

Not pictured are the Almond Orange Bites that were displayed by the coffee :)

Let's see... what'll I make next year?

Meeting Santa

My mom, my nephew and I took the boys to the mall to get their picture taken with Santa. Peanut had been sleeping and just really didn't want to be woken up.



The pom pom on Santa's hat get hitting him in the face and he really wasn't a fan of the whole process.

Danny sat sweetly while his 2nd cousin fussed and repeatedly fell over.



The binky worked for a second but he isn't really very attached to it and got bored with it pretty quickly.

You can tell by his eyebrows that he isn't really buying this whole santa thing.



Santa was having a hard time keeping him upright and he kept sliding down. His head would bob down and and we'd try to squish him back into place.

Squish

Poor kid. I just stood off to the side laughing and snapping pictures.

The elves snapped away and chose the best picture.....



The Peanut is reeeeaaaallllyyyy excited about Christmas, you just can't tell in the picture. :)

Oh Christmas tree

We bought our tree last Saturday and I had every intention of going home and decorating it immediately.



Somehow we spent more time doing this and the tree just stood in our living room completely naked for another 2 days.

I like to say we were appreciating it's natural, raw beauty.

This has never happened before as I really like to gather 'round the tree for as long as possible. I suppose I'll have to keep it up until February. I'll put Valentine's decoration on it!



With the exception of a few ornaments, the tree is done in all reds and whites and tons of snowflakes. I have a snowflake obsession- I can't pass one up!

I have my eye out for a really spectacular snowflake or star tree topper.

I used to do my trees in all blues, silvers and whites and I still have those ornamentns which will probably be incorporated into Peanut's tree next year.

Yes, he will have a tree and hopefull it will be an aluminum one. I'm trying to get my hands and a cool aluminum tree!



All my decorations are purchased after Christmas each year with the exception of my one big splurge. This is the annual Swarovski ornament and I've decided it will be a Christmas tradition. I started this last year when I purchased one for each of my bridesmaids.

FYI: You can get these at Costco for $25 less than at Swarovski.



I'm having a hard time thinking about what next year will be like with a little rugrat around.

So I figured I should take pictures while the tree is decorated the way I want :)



Oh but I can't wait until the Peanut gets excited for Christmas!

Annual Christmas Party

Every year at my parents house the Christmas decorations come out the day after Thanksgiving.

This process in itself takes several hours. There are so many boxes and bags.



You can see by the Pier 1 bags that we hit up the after Christmas sales last year. It's best to buy these things when they are 75-90% off.

My dad spends a few days stringing lights and moving things around and my mom takes the better part of a week focused on decorating.

The annual Christmas party is a big deal and we look forward to it every year.


B and the Peanut enjoying a little downtime before everyone gets here.

Here is just a tiny peak into the amazingness that is my parent's house during the holidays.



This past summer they gutted and renovated their backyard. It's amazing how it turned out.



In the corner you see a bar that seats 8 on one side and on the other you have an awesome BBQ, fridge, sink, etc.



This house is built to entertain, from the kitchen and living room to the back yard.



Cheese and appetizers, anyone?

We weren't able to do the cheese display until the last minute because it was 84 degrees here in Huntington Beach. On December 12th. How crazy is that?



I love that it feels like an outdoor living space. It's perfect because here in So Cal we can pretty much use it year round.



I think the fireplace is my favorite.



These bookshelves are a good indication of the Christmas decorations in the house. Not a single shelf without some holiday flair. It is everywhere!

I grew up thinking this was normal. Heh.



More serving space for food. It's all about the food around here.



There were times growing up when the tree would be so big that my dad would have to trim down the top to fit it in the house.

Sometimes it would look like the top must be gowing thru the roof and sticking out the other side.

The angel is always sitting in the tree instead of on top.



My mom collects nativities and they are everywhere around the house. This is the biggest one and is always displayed here. Usually she takes out the baby Jesus until Christmas morning but things have been a bit hectic and he is still out.

We have a little joke we play regarding the baby Jesus. I'll share it with you later.



This is the view from the living room into the kitchen. In the middle is what I look forward to every year.

It's my mom's eggnog. She starts it 2 weeks before the party. I tastes nothing like what you get at the store. It has alcohol and lots of cream and it's so delicious that my mouth is watering just thinking about it.



That was just the tiniest glimpse of the festivities around here!

As you can see, the Peanut was hittin' the eggnog pretty hard.