December 25

Merry

Christmas

From my family to yours!

Can't keep my eyes open

I haven't been sleeping well these last few nights. Really its nothing new I guess. It happens a lot. But I am tired. I just want a decent night sleep. I don't know if I will be able to stay awake this afternoon or not! Once the boys wake up, I still have quite a few things that I need to get done this evening before tomorrow. I just tried to do too much. My big mistake? Sugar cookies. They are too much work. Too much work for one stinking cookie. I still need to ice them. I've done dishes twice this morning. Too many dishes. I need to do more before dinner. And then of course will need to do more after dinner. I need a shower too.
Yes I am tired and yes I am complaining. But I do all of this because I want to. I look forward to it. Maybe next year I will just skip the sugar cookies though, haha!
I don't know when I will see you all again! Merry Christmas

What are you serving?

Do you have your Christmas menu planned? I think I've got mine ready to go. So I wanted to share with you and maybe offer you some ideas if you aren't sure.
We are having Ham. I nice large, bone in Ham. The only way to serve ham is to serve one with a bone. It adds so much more flavor and helps to keep it moist. Mom is making a turkey breast also. Got to have a bit of variety just in case...its nice to have that little bit of everything. Mom will also make dressing. Not a lot, just enough because we know that not everyone will eat it. Of course we will have mashed potatoes and gravy. I am also adding sweet potato casserole this year. I tested it out a week ago and it was pretty good. I am using a recipe I found from AllRecipes.com. You can find it HERE. I am changing it a bit though and will bake the sweet potatoes instead of boiling them. They just taste better that way. We will have corn and green beans. My Aunt is making noodles...from scratch. I am making deviled eggs as well. The recipe is loosely based on the one from Betty Crocker. I adjust the amounts a bit, and add some pickle juice for a bit of a bite. They turn out so good usually! And of course rolls! The rolls from a post I did a while ago and you can find it HERE. Although, I will make them smaller because of all of that food we are having!
Desserts will be brownies, pecan pie (that I bought from the store), sugar cookies, and dirt dessert. The brownies are a box mix. I have tried making brownies from scratch and just haven't gotten them right for some reason. So I am sticking with the box. The sugar cookie recipe came from Betty Crocker again. And if you want the recipe for the dirt dessert, or you just want to see what exactly dirt dessert is, well then go HERE. It came from Taste of Home.
I don't think I am forgetting anything....We have quite a bit of people to feed, so we usually do have a lot food around. I am of course hoping for leftovers as well. I look forward to the leftovers almost as much as the meal itself!
I would like to hear what you all are planning!

4 Days...right?

Yeah, yesterday was rough. We are past it, and I think I'm going to leave it at that. Really the only thing I managed to get accomplished was making the sugar cookie dough. I am adding sugar cookies to the list of desserts for my Christmas Eve menu.
Every single gift is wrapped now. Some things are under the tree. Most stuff is still upstairs hidden away. Today was the last day of school for Dylan until after the new year. It just maybe a long week in between Christmas and New Years. Today is also the first time we have seen the sun in a few days. Its nice. It helps improve the mood. I think that I have said that a few times here. But really, it does. I got some of our Christmas cards hung up. I have a picture to show you:

They are hanging facing the kitchen. Behind them is the dining room. I have more to add, but I just didn't get to it yet. I have so much stuff that I didn't get accomplished today. And it probably wont happen this evening. The evenings around here are busy enough with dinner and dinner clean up. I wish I didn't have to cook dinner at all this week. Well except for Christmas eve dinner.

This morning it was raining, kind of hard. The rain was hitting the window, it was extra dark and at 8 am both kids were still asleep. I had to wake them up this morning to get going. Now, in this next week and a half that we wont have to be out the door at a certain time, they wont do that again. Mommy will be up early with Ethan, the early riser.

Blah

Long day. Rough morning and afternoon. And the internet isn't working great. See you all tomorrow. Hopefully it will be better. I still need to get through the rest of today....Ahh!

Less than one week

...and Christmas is here. I am so excited. Like I have said before, it snuck up on me, but I think that after today, I am ready. I am waiting on the last of Dylan's gifts to get here and then I will finish wrapping all of the gifts. I got most every one's wrapped over the weekend. I think I finished the grocery shopping for the meal on Christmas eve. I don't think I forgot anything! At least I hope not. The rest of the week will be filled with some baking that I can do ahead of time, and gift wrapping. After Wednesday, Dylan is out of school until after the new year. Someone want to take my kid for a week? No? Well I tried.
Over the weekend, Dylan was with my grandparents. Ethan and I spent the morning on Saturday out running errands. Last minute gifts, some groceries and then home. I also made a batch of cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. Ever since I was given my bread maker, I have been making cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. This year though, I wont have much time Christmas eve to make anything like that. So I found a method here on the Internet, that told me how long to pre-bake them and then on Christmas morning, while we are opening gifts, they will finish baking, and we will have hot and fresh cinnamon rolls. They are in the freezer now just waiting for us. The kids will love them!
I am so tired right now. It seems like this morning flew by. I rushed around all morning getting the kids out the door and Dylan to school, then we rushed through the grocery store because I had another stop I had to make before we picked Dylan up. All Ethan has wanted to do all morning is eat. Finally at lunch, I stuffed him full of food and then sent him off to nap time!

Santa came to town

Last night was the Santa visit up at the firehouse. Here are the photos of the boys. Ethan did shockingly well. He cried when I put him on Santa's lap. When Ryan put him on Santa's lap, he was fine. Explain that to me! I totally expected him to cry with Santa. I guess I was half right, haha!

Remember me telling you about how Ethan got a black eye? Well if you look at the picture well enough, you can see his black eye. It is getting better, but taking a while.

Stayed busy this morning. I have a to do list a mile long. Stuff I need to get done before Christmas Eve. I am working on it. While the boys were eating lunch, I made a quick double batch of Chimichurri Sauce. I love that stuff!!!! We are having steak tonight, which is perfect for chimichurri! And I think Im going to make the pressure cooker mac and cheese to go with it. The boys will love that.

Happy Thursday!