Party Pooped!

What a few weeks it has been, busy busy busy...

I forgot to mention last week that we went to a little Christmas dessert party across the street, our neighbors wanted to get some of the newer families together to meet each other, although we outnumbered them all by far...

I know I mentioned before that I had been doing a lot of baking, so I decided to share with our new friends and neighbors. I found some nice glass dishes for a dollar and dressed them up with fudge, banana bread, candy cane sugar cookies and lemon snowballs. It took me most of the week getting them all made and passed out but I enjoyed meeting new neighbors and sharing with friends. The kids weren't too happy that I was giving so much away, but they got their fair share of treats too.

Ella had her birthday on Tuesday, she is thoroughly 3 now. We didn't plan anything fancy, just your run-of-the-mill birthday party. With all the baking I've been doing lately, I took the easy route and bought a bundt cake from Sams. While I was gone shopping, Sierra took charge of wrapping presents and decorating, which she did perfectly I must say. Poor Ella though... she really wanted to open her presents that morning, but Mom was mean and made her wait for Dad to come home.

That night, Chris informed me that we were going to dinner at the Jones the next day, which was news to me... so I called and asked what to bring, hoping it would be something I could throw together last minute -- drinks and ambrosia, easy enough. Brother Jones is famous in these parts for his ribs and he gave us a bottle of his secret recipe dry rub to take home. The Okere's and the Carrillos were both there too, so we had plenty of kids to entertain themselves. It was a fun night; the kids didn't want to leave the party even though Santa was coming...

Sooo.... On to the big day... Christmas... we heard the kids wake up at 7:00, but Santa has a rule that they can't come out till 8:00. Their stockings are hung in their rooms so they can look through them while they are waiting (can I just say; that is one of the best ideas we've had... I really enjoy the extra few minutes of sleep!). The girls sleep upstairs but the boys are down, which was a little different for us in coordinating the big "ready, set, go!" Well, the floodgates broke on "go" and everyone found their piles immediately... except for Ella, who kept wandering around and "wow"ing everyone elses stuff. She eventually realized that there was a pile for her too. I must have been good also because there were even a few things for me! Santa was sneaky! After we cleaned out from under all the rubble, we all settled into the laziness of the day... I took some last-minute cookies to the nieghbors, dad took a much-needed nap, the girls made gingerbread houses and then the kids headed out to play in the snow...

You would think we were all partied out by then, but no, we had to host one of our own...the day after Christmas we had the Faerbers and Carillos over for a game night, I think we ended up with about 22 people because some of the kids invited their friends too. Chris turned on the tunes and everyone was dancing around (Linda teaches dance classes, she is really good). I just opted to take the photos and avoid making a fool out of myself... Eventually we settled on a few games; Apples to Apples and Hearts were the main picks. I figured it was a good trial run for us, since we are hosting the youth New Years party at our house too.

Saturday, the Hammari's invited us to go sledding at a little park up the street. The hill wasn't very big, but it was enough to have fun. I even got out my snowboard and took a few runs down the "chute" -- hardly worth the effort to buckle in each time, but it felt good to have a board back on my feet. Sierra even tried it a few times and she was doing pretty well. We need to get on some real slopes one of these days... Ella got a new Christmas dress, Santa found it on clearance at Sam's for $7! Santa loves a good deal...