Christmas!

This is our first family picture in front of our house

Is it sad that my favorite gift this year was a vacuum?  I guess that makes me old and boring, but I don't care!  I love my vacuum!  My dad bought Brian and I a Dyson dc65 Animal Complete!  And I mean it when I say it's Brian's, too, because now we fight over who gets to vacuum.  This vacuum is the bad boy of all Dysons.  We needed it too, because our carpet sheds an unbelievable amount.  The carpet's like an Alaskan husky on a hot summer day.  Gone are the days of sitting on the floor for an hour, cursing, with an overheated Hoover and a metal hanger.  After one room I had to take the whole vacuum apart and use the hanger to unclog the tube.  Uuuuggghhhhhhh!
Now, it's vacuuming bliss!!

Christmas Eve Eve we had my dad over to our house.  He and the kids exchanged gifts.  I made dinner.   I'm jinxed when it comes to cooking for my dad.  It seems like every time I cook something for him it goes wrong.  So, for dinner I chose one of my best and easiest recipes, red beans and rice.  It's fool-proof, I thought, because it's just a crockpot meal.  WRONG.  I burned it somehow.

Christmas Eve is traditionally spent with Brian's side of the family.  Sarah and Carla have taken turns hosting in the past.  This year, with us in our new house, we hosted Christmas.  We were happy to have everyone come over!

Poppy and Arden

Kellie and Ashely

Gigi, Halle, Arden, Jack, Papa Mike

Ashley, Carla, Mimi

our house dressed up for Chrismas

After the family left, it was time to wrap the kids' presents.  Adam and Sarah stayed because we do Christmas morning with them.  Papa Mike and Gigi also joined us the next morning.  I copied Sarah's idea of wrapping each of the kid's gifts in their own paper: princess wrapping for Arden, Mickey for Jack, and snowmen for Halle.  By midnight, when I was getting the wrapping done, I was EXHAUSTED.  I threw the presents in leftover gift bags and taped a piece of their personalized wrapping on top.  Ghetto fabulous for sure, but I didn't care.  

Arden put oats outside for the reindeer and milk and cookies by the fireplace for Santa.

Christmas morning we had a hearty breakfast followed by more gifts!  Christmas Vacation played on the TV while we did gifts because that is family tradition.  Love that movie; it gets better every year! 

The rest of the day was spent with my side of the family at my mom's house.  We had tamales,which is also a family tradition.  We only buy for the younger kids thankfully.  Otherwise there would be a bazillion presents to buy for on my side of the family.  The adults play White Elephant and then we play another game.  This year it was Taboo.  My family is so much fun to play games with.  They are hilarious!  We always play boys vs. Women.  The boys had been on a winning streak for a while, but I'm proud to say the Women won last year and this year!