Christmas 2010

So, today was Christmas. How did that happen? I know I blame a lot of my current *ACK* state to my kitchen disaster {turned blessing}, but losing out on almost 6 weeks right before Christmas really has a way of wreaking havoc on one's perception of time!

We have a standing rule in our house that we do not begin Christmas festivities before 8 AM. Period. The children are up well before that, but we keep them sequestered in the playroom until we can get our wits about us, get the cameras ready, and get them lined up and ready to go downstairs to where the *magic* has happened ;)

Santa did not disappoint this year. Our Christmas seemed "smaller" because our kids already have every gadget that kids their ages could want {iPod, camera, DS, etc}. It felt strange to not have more "big ticket" items, but it was so nice to get back to the "basics" of clothes, games, and the more simple things ... they have been WAY too spoiled the past few years! Funny thing is they were smiling, laughing, and enjoying themselves just as much if not more. Rather than being connected to their new "devices" they were playing games together. BLISS for a mama to see!

Steve surprised me with the Silhouette Craft Cutter I'd been wanting and I got him an iPad ... not really a surprise because I can NEVER surprise him, but he plays along very well ;)

Just a few more pics of the unwrapping frenzy ... gotta love that it takes hours (for Steve) to wrap everything and about 15 minutes for everything to be torn apart!!

We spent time in the morning playing games and eating our traditional breakfast Strata casserole ... YUM!

We laid low for a while, ate snacks and treats, watched Despicable Me, and decided it was time to open my birthday gifts!! I am a lucky girl to celebrate my birthday on Christmas. Most people think it would be awful, but I've never known any different and everyone has always done a great job to differentiate between the two celebrations! I received lots of wonderful things, money, and some gift cards - can't wait to shop some more!!

I just have to show off a bit of Steve's creative side while I'm at it ... he knew I wanted to get a new pair of jeans from the Buckle but also knew that buying jeans is not an easy task - certainly one he didn't want to take on by himself ;) So he gave me cash to buy them and made this fancy "buckle" out of cardstock to hold the money!! Isn't he the best?!?

Next it was time to take Aunt Kris to the airport so she could head home. We are so glad she was able to be with us this year to help us celebrate the season!!

Since we chose to eat our "holiday feast" a few days early this year, I decided that making one of my fave dinners was in order for my birthday ... homemade pizza, of course! The kids made their own and I decked one out for Steve and myself. Yum-O!!

After dinner we had the Wilsons over to share in some birthday cake and ice cream - what better way to start winding down a fabulous day?!? Texas Sheet Cake and Peppermint Ice Cream were the perfect way to celebrate!

A few more minutes for games and light saber fights before calling it a night ... what a fun and fabulous day!

Did I mention that it was my birthday? I turned 39 today. I'm not living in denial of it. I'm not even dreading the idea that I'm turning 40 a year from today. Life at 39 is pretty darn good. I look forward to seeing what the next year holds in store!!

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas ...

Could it really be Christmas Eve?!? Apparently December has all but gone in a flash! Our entire holiday season has been "off" this year - I blame it on the kitchen. It always feels better to be able to blame your woes on something else ;)

Today we said goodbye to Grammy and Paca ... they headed off to Seattle to spend Christmas with my brother Ryan's family. We are so glad we got to have them for a few days! We've been lucky to have them for lots of Christmases and will feel strange without them here tomorrow. We made sure to open gifts from them before they left - they always buy PJs for the kiddos and they were really looking forward to seeing what Grammy picked out this year. She did not disappoint ... Buzz Lightyear for Cougar and some darling owls for the girls!

After we got back from the airport it was time to get busy! I whipped up a batch of addiction to take down to Steve's office to go along with the subway art that I sent in for everyone. Then I had to buckle down to make toffee and dip the 80+ mint oreo truffles I made a few days ago. With it being Christmas Eve we really needed to get plates of goodies together to take to our home teaching and visiting teaching families along with a few other friends and neighbors. Boy, did it take a lot of time to get them ready!

After the plates were ready we spent a few hours in the car making deliveries ... the entire family went and took turns going to the doors to drop of our treats and share Christmas wishes from our family!!

Next it was home to make white bean chili for dinner - a family favorite!! We also watched the movie "Elf" together. It is probably my favorite Christmas movie of all time!! We decided that we don't really have many Christmas Eve traditions for our family so we are already talking about what we would like to do next year ... party anyone? We think so!!

Before sending the kids off to bed we sat together and read the Christmas story from the New Testament. This is always an important part of our holiday because it helps us to slow down and remember exactly why we celebrate this time of year.

All of the kids sleep in the playroom together on Christmas Eve every year. This year they decided to make forts inside the playroom ... kinda funny since the room is not that big! It always takes them longer to fall asleep when they're all together, but it makes things better in the morning because they have each other to play/talk/watch movies with since we do not allow them to come out of the playroom until 8 AM - mean parents, we know!

The kiddos did remember to leave a letter to Santa with some cookies and milk. It read:
Dear Santa,
Thank you for the presents. We really appreciate your hard work. To show our gratitude, please enjoy these cookies and the glass of milk. All of us kids wait for you all year long, especially Cougar. He said that he wants to meet Rudolph. We hope that you have a safe journey around the world.
Your friends,
The Holts

The night ended with lots of cleaning up, wrapping a few gifts, stuffing stockings, putting gifts under the tree, snacking, and blogging, of course ;)

On a sadder note, we said goodbye to Cougar's first pet, Toothless, today. He came into our lives on Tuesday and left us sometime between last night and this morning. Cougar was convinced he was taking just napping. Once we explained that he was dead, Steve told him that we can get another fish. He said he doesn't want another fish ... he wants a dog. Poor kid ... not gonna happen!

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas

We had our Christmas feast!! But before we could get to that we had a fun filled and busy day, of course ;)

My girlfriend Gina (and bootcamp buddy) had text me to see if I wanted to go running with her this morning so we met up about 7 to run! It was a bit shorter and slower run than my other two this week which was very welcome this morning!!

Steve took my parents into the office this morning for their annual eye exams {I didn't go with to take pics ... sorry} while the rest of us got ready for the day. We got a visit from Sister Davis in our ward with another delivery of goodies. Yes, you read her label right ... 19 different types of candy!!! This woman is an "old school" candy maker and puts together massive packages of candy to deliver to people for the holidays that you can.not.believe. I don't know how we ended up on her list but certainly aren't complaining ;)

This morning we split up and took the kids to shop for each other. We have our kids buy a gift for one other sibling so we try to divide and conquer to get the shopping done. I feel like we have done nothing but shop and bake the past few days ... the kitchen and Disney trip really threw us off our game this year and we are feeling SUPER unprepared and chaotic about things! While we were out we ran into Santa as we were leaving JC Penney, so Cougar took a moment to remind him one more time that he wanted "Life Savers" {aka Light Sabers} for Christmas - let's hope Santa doesn't disappoint!

We met up for lunch at Paradise Bakery (everyone except Paca who was golfing with friends) and Grammy treated us to a delicious meal ... a fave for everyone!! We actually didn't buy cookies this time around because we have so many goodies at our house!

Steve finally picked out our new nutcracker for this year - I can't believe we haven't gotten one before now ... that is usually one of the first things we buy! I guess we should refer back to the "unprepared and chaotic" state of this particular season ;) We are happy to welcome Sherlock Holmes into our family.

I decided that we should have our "traditional" Christmas dinner tonight since my parents are leaving tomorrow to fly to Seattle to spend Christmas with my brother's family. My sister flies out on Christmas afternoon, too, so it seemed to make the most sense to do it tonight so we could all enjoy it together! It was a bit "scaled down" from what we might normally do {think no salad, jello, deviled eggs, etc.}, but we did have ham, funeral potatoes, beans, and Lion House Rolls, so we covered all of the "favorite" dishes! The kids enjoyed more time playing outside while I was busy cooking up a storm inside.

After dinner Steve did the clean up {bless him!} and the kids spent a few minutes "telling scary stories" with Grammy before heading to bed. Grammy and Paca jumped in to help get our painting done in our kitchen so we can feel like things are FINISHED around here and we are so grateful for that!! I had to spend some time catching up on work tonight and Grammy and Kris spent time finishing up some of the cookies that were started yesterday - WHEW! I still have some baking to finish tomorrow so we can take things into Steve's office, but he finished the gifts today which is a huge relief!