the day AFTER christmas

AND....THE celebrations continued..... we went to erics uncle kip and julie and shawns house for a party with the brewer side of the family..... we had dinner there and did a gift exchange. here are some of the pix from the night....

COUSINS!

frank and kristy... their kids alexis and zachary..... erics cousin tricia and uncle mark...


uncle duane and aunt patty (mikes sister), cousin julie and husband shawn.... friend of the family Jim


gram, mary and i...

uncle kip (mikes brother), mikes mom and aunt susan.... eric and "foxy"

christmas DAY

SANTA CAME! AND HIS ELVES DELIVERED! SANTA COULDNT AFFORD ANYTHING MORE, AND OUR GIRLS HAD ADDED A FEW THINGS.... a toy plane and a toy fox for caelan.... his elves in fallbrook found those two special things to give to santa to add to the stockings! thank goodness for elves! they are so helpful- cause its a lot of work for santa...

we put all of our presents for everyone in our bedroom- that way the kids wouldnt be opening them all week long, so no presents under our tree this year! it worked fabulously too!


my sister and my parents came over to deliver the "bikes" to the girls and they ended up staying and having breakfast here before they went on to their friends house....... which was very cool...... they also gave us delux disney-passes- which we were thrilled about!!!!!!! yipppeee

eric and i found a desk at a yard sale.... we re-finished the whole thing- and bought new hardware and gave it to my sister this year- she's wanted a desk for years! so that was a cool thing to be able to do...

riley on her "dora" three wheeler and caelan on her big girl bike from my parents..... the girls holding clothes from their favorite store, Gymboree- gifts from my grandpa and susan! thanks!!!

i made windchimes similar to the ones at katies wedding out of my grans old sterling tea pot set... i gave one to my mom and one to my sister, then made one for mary out of her moms silver, and beads from our wedding..... a whole bunch of stuff really as a heritage piece. it was very fun to make them!
the ox and the goat from my parents for our nativity set.
we didnt want to light a fire in our fireplace cause it would have gotten to hot in our living room since it wasnt all that cold in so cal this morning... :) so eric found a cable tv music channel that had a yule log background.... we were cracking up!

it was a nice morning.... we kept christmas simple... didnt buy unnecessary gifts and spend unnecessary money.... it was nice to spend time and eat and laugh..... we kept the true meaning of christmas in our hearts vs. getting caught up in "who got what."

WE SPENT THE MORNING WITH THE FOUR OF US... HAD MY PARENTS AND ELLEN COME BY...... NOW ITS OFF TO ERICS PARENTS TO FURTHER THE DAYS CELEBRATIONS....................

"nana" made the girls christmas skirts!................... "papa" and "nana" made noahs ark! AMAZING! and mary painted them all after mike cut them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! awesome!

its all about resting after a great meal..... erics dad is hilarious! the girls got aprons from mary- she made them...

i brought veggies.... mary made bread........ i made a crazy loaded green salad- yum!

we cut up some fruit..... mary and eric did the roast......

we concluded the night by having a fire in the fire pit... talking, laughing and enjoying christmas.....

christmas EVE

after some talking it out, we got to thinking about the holidays, and decided to do it a little different this year... taking old and new traditions and combining what works best... it is so hard to figure out the holidays when you get married and have another family you want to be able to spend time with.....

this year we decided EVERY YEAR the kids would go to breakfast with erics parents.... theyhave been doing this the last few years and we decided that was a cool thing for the four of them to keep doing as a tradition..... (i'll have to see about getting pictures from erics parents so i can post them here!)

we spent christmas eve at my parents house for dinner, which was going to be a few of us- that turned into being 22 of us at the last minute. :) a big crowd is always fun! my dad made his ever so famous prime rib, potaotes and bread and everyone pitched in and brought all the fixin's..... i made my homemade ice cream- both reeses and butterfinger and eric made the best ever texas sheet cake! yum yum.

before i was born, my parents got to be really close to their friends lonna and john... they became so close that we were all rasied as "family" doing holidays together along with birthday celebrations... anyhow, that is the background info.... basically, lonna made a texas sheet cake EVERY year as i grew up.... this became a very important part of my life and my christmas eve traditions... well as our families got larger and lonna had grown kids of her own we all stopped doing christmas eve together because no one had a house big enough to fit us all.... so anyhow, i realized that it is all about Jesus and His birth-DAY..... so as i got to thinking about Christmas and my kids, i knew right away that i wanted this to be just as important for them as it was for me as i grew up.... so Eric took on the task of making it- using the same recipe as Lonnas... and we placed Happy Birthday Jesus on it just as she always did....... this made me very happy. the kids too! :) next year we will keep the tradition.... think of things you can do to keep "jesus in christmas"

all in all it was a very nice day! it was easy, relaxing.... and great to spend time with family..... we also exchanged a few gifts on christmas eve.... that worked out great to spread things out since the kids get so tired.... :)