Whew! What a week it has been. The kids were out of school, in daycare here and there between being sent home sick a time or two (there's a virus around here which comes and goes but doesn't seem to want to go away for good), I was wrapping up a lot of year-end work before taking a week off, there was cleaning and shopping, wrapping and hiding, planning and cooking and good ol fashioned fun. I couldn't possibly tell you all about it but it was truly a wonderful week.
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| Baking sugar cookies with my babies. |
On Christmas Eve I hosted my family. Since everyone was on call and had busy schedules I opted for an hor d'oeuvres spread which worked out well. The big hit was the thing I was most unsure of. It was gone in a flash. Here's the recipe (if you want to call it that, it was so simple!):
Gruyere Apple Cups
12 slices Canadian bacon2 granny smith apples
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon thyme
1/2 cup freshly grated Gruyere
Melt the butter, add diced apples and thyme. Cook for 4 minutes or until soft. Spray cooking spray in muffin tins and form cups with the Canadian bacon. Put the apples in each cup, top with cheese and bake at 350 for 15 minutes. See? Super easy.
It was great visiting with my brother and sister and three of my teen nephews. Sadly, one was sick and stayed home and his mom wasn't able to make it either. Then there's the brother that never responded and didn't show up. Most people have one of *these*. I could go on and on but chances are, you've been there, you know that. I had sweet quality time with my loved ones.
We went to the Christmas Eve service which was just beautiful. I love the hand bell quartet and the candle lit Silent Night. B was such a good boy through it and sang from the hymnal. He looked pretty grown up. Bitty got all dolled up but we ended up putting her in the nursery because she was so sleep from the day's events. At home we let B open the gift from us (since it's an alarm clock and he'll know not to wake us up at 5am. I'm half genius/half evil momma).
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| Priceless smiles abound this time of year. |
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| He was really concerned he was on the naughty list. |
B woke up on Christmas morning and to his delight Santa came, ate cookies, dropped a carrot on his way up the chimney and left plenty of gifts. Bitty woke up quite a bit later and was a little confused. B showed her how to open gifts and what was in her stocking. She quickly caught on, played with each toy, ate a cinnamon roll and went back to bed. Is she a teenager? Nip and I exchanged gifts and I must say, he gets better every year but now I don't know if he can out-do himself. We also opened the gifts Nip's mom sent all of us. That woman is the gift whisperer! I wish I had an ounce of a) her shopping skill, b) her thoughtfulness when picking out gifts and c) her ability to wrap a beautiful present. We stayed in pj's all day, I made a spiral ham, potatoes, green bean casserole, corn casserole and rolls. Healthy huh? And I drank wine in my pj's for the first time in my life. Weird observation.
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| B showing Bitty her first Barbie. |
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| I love this photo. She's like her Momma in the morning! |
I'm taking the week off to spend time with the kids, paint my living room, love on my new iPad that's coming Tuesday (thanks to my boss who really knows how to show a girl she's appreciated), drink/cry/throw a fit over saying goodbye to a decade say hello to my most amazing decade yet, create my 2009 and 2010 photo books (yeah I'm a bit behind), spend time with my bestie, figure out what to do with a bunch of clothes and toys that we need to purge, finish planning B's birthday party which is coming up on the 8th, have a few great meals and ring in the new year. Yep. This time next week I'll be saying WHEW. Again.
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