Monday, January 12, 2009

Isn't it still Christmas?

Well, I know Christmas was like 2 weeks ago, but I still have my tree up, how about you? This past week was crazy at work and I have been working non-stop. So, I finally found a few moments to post about Christmas. We had a fabulous Christmas with my sisters family. Lots of snow, ice, food, fun, kids, love and family traditions.


A few days before Christmas we made a gingerbread house. I didn't know I was married to a gingerbread-house-making-man. Dan helped the kids make the house look really great. He even made icicles! Notice how his hand is covered in icing. That was because I prepared it so well in the pastry bag!



















Dan also worked really hard on this HUGE snowman. He colored the snow, dug through layers of ice to find rocks and even had time to make a sombrero from his homeland for his Feliz Navidad snowman. We also made two HUGE snowman in some vacant lots earlier in the day, but I didn't have the camera with me. This was on Christmas Eve and it actually rained a little that day so the snow was perfect for snow man making.



















One of our families traditions is to eat out on Christmas Eve. Even though the roads were packed with snow and ice we were determined to go out to eat. We made it safely to Macaroni Grill and had a great dinner.



























Our original plans for Christmas Eve were to attend a Hot Cocoa meet and greet with Santa at Jantzen Beach mall, but due to the bad weather it was cancelled. So, we arranged to have Santa come to the house!! We were singing Christmas carols by the piano when we heard some jingling bells and a knock on the door. It was Santa! The kids were seriously in shock. I don't think I have ever seen them so quiet!













Santa came in and took some pictures, gave them a candy cane and told them to go to sleep early so he could come back later. The second he walked out the door they were screaming and jumping up and down because they were so excited that Santa Claus had come to their house! It was so cute.













Another family tradition we have is to act out the Nativity. Dan, Dawson and I were wisemen.

































Kelsey got to be Mary.













The last family tradition we have on Christmas Eve is to get Christmas jammies, not just any jammies, but.........













MATCHING JAMMIES






































My sister and I used to sing a song at my brother when we were younger, "WE HAVE MATCHING JAMMIES AND YOU DON'T"





















Finally it was Christmas morning and the ravenous unwrapping began!


































































































This has become a more recent tradition since we have lived in Portland. It is Christmas french toast. It is the most delicious orange french toast with pomegranite seeds in an orange sauce. It is one of the best things in the world. We also ALWAYS have bacon wrapped water chestnuts and I bet I ate about 10 of them and I didn't care because it was Christmas!














The best part about Christmas was being with our family and watching the kids have so much fun. We were very spoiled this Christmas and at one point Kelsey asked "Why do Holly and Dan get so many presents?" (or something along those lines!) I would give all the presents back and be satisfied with all the memories we made. Dawson got a ball pit and he absolutely loves it. This video is so cute and it is really funny when he falls out the little window! I hope you all had a great holiday season.

3 comments:

Missy said...

Great post! It looks like you had a really fun holiday. You'll have to put up the recipe for the Christmas French Toast, it looked very interesting...

Linds said...

It's never too late to post Christams, or take down your tree. It looks like you had a grand time. Love the jammies and the video was hilarious. Miss you tons!!!

Anonymous said...

Matching jammies . . . overrated. ;)