December Daily 27

I put my helpers to work taking the wrappers off of the kisses. Actually, they both insisted that they had to help.

Ta-da!

Plus, I baked some sugar cookies yesterday and frosted them this morning. I found this recipe about a week ago and really like it. I omitted the nutmeg and added 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract. Posting this from my phone, so not the best link:

While I worked on frosting, Eric and the boys enjoyed the 60 degree weather.

Tonight we went over to Grandma's to celebrate Christmas with David, Kelsey, and Eva, who flew in this morning. Eva had Eric help her with her fort, while our monkeys ran around like they had been raised in the wild.

Time for opening presents.

A new walking doll for Eva from Grandma. She was very excited, "A new baby!!!"

A Peyton Manning t-shirt for Uncle David. I see too many Viking shirts around here, so I figured I better start sending Broncos gear to the Midwest. (No offense to my Vikings fan relatives.)

We gave Eva some books which the boys wanted to read.

Aiden adding some vehicular improvements to Grandma's ice castle.

December Daily 26

A return trip to the grocery store. Much less crowded the day after Christmas compared to the day before.

 And car wash.

Back to making Christmas sweets.

With non-yucky pretzels.

December Daily 25

While Eric flew in from New York,

Reid helped me with some last minute wrapping.

Aiden getting m&m's from Santa out of his stocking.

Reid checking out his stocking. I really wanted to see new stockings for all of us, but I failed. I just don't really ever get a break during "breaks" and over-estimate what I can accomplish. This time was tougher with the boys being sick.

Dancing around with excitement because they finally get to open presents.

A couple of good pictures of the guys.

Let the playing begin.

Santa brought Reid a basketball hoop which sits at the top of the door. My dad's basketball nickname was "Jumping Jim" and this shot reminded me of that.

Grandma and her grandsons. Every so often Reid will say "We're Grandma's grandsons. Right, Mom?"

Showing Grandma how to play Mario Kart.

Uncle David! Cousin Jordan! Check out the new Hot Wheels race track!!!

Giving Grandma hugs and kisses.

December Daily 24

I've always felt my winter farm village was incomplete. Leave it to Aiden to show me what was missing.

We braved the grocery store. Of course it was very crowded, but the boys hung in there.

The weather was actually beautiful and in the 50s. It gave the boys a chance to take their bikes for a spin. Lots of coughing ensued, but they were happy to have some outside time after being cooped up the past few days.

I planned to leave these for Santa, but I accidentally bought butter-flavored preztels, which do not taste good at all. Not sure when I'll make it back to the grocery store to buy regular preztels. I still have plenty of kisses and m&m's, so I hope to find time to try again.

Eric spent most of the day flying parallel to Santa.

Me and my boys. Love them so much!

Since the other treats for Santa were a bust, we decided to leave m&m's.

We decided we should leave them in the front room so Santa can find them. Aiden is certain Santa won't be coming down the fireplace because of the pilot light. I told him Santa had a special key to get in our front door if he needed to. He thought we should wait up for him, but I reminded him that we're not allowed to see him when he's delivering presents. Reid thought Santa would like the m&m's because they were in Christmas colors.

I was still fielding questions about Santa (and delivering drinks of water) well past 10:00 p.m. Hoping we all have a restful night to get ready for all of tomorrow's excitement. 

I hope Santa brings you everything your heart desires.