Sweet cinnamon buns for my sweet pea!

It is a family tradition for Christine to make home made cinnamon rolls to deliver to friends and family right before Christmas. Brian is eager to pick up the tradition for himself (the Bit and I are absolutely ok w/ this!). This year Abigail got to get in on the fun. She absolutely loves to cook and had a ball helping make them this year. Again, she preferred to be panties only....I think she feels her most capable in the buff. What can I say, she's my el-naturel baby girl. I wasn't able to play long , I headed off to work but was able to snap a few pics of the creation before I left. Have you ever seen a bigger slab of flour?!?!

Dinner with the Tates.....

Abigail showed off her 'reading' skills and told her aunt Honey the Christmas story

Ben really liked my turkey

Christmas Eve..eve we got to get together w/ my sweet sister Amy and her family, or better known as Aunt Honey. The Tates came over and we just had a ball watching the wild youngins run around the house. Abigail was a little fascinated w/ her cousin Caroline and lets say Caroline wasn't quite as trilled to have a 2 and a half year old following her around like a little shadow :) Abigail couldn't help herself, her cousins were just too cool! I gave the kids some much loved and appreciated (sorry Ame) bugs and snakes which they were thrilled about. No princess too-too's for my sweet tomboy neice w/ her big bouncing blond curls and bows! Such a neat mixture of a girl. And Ben was just enthralled at his Uncle Brian's tales of guns and bombs and Star Wars pictures. Thanks for a great night together guys, can't wait to do it again! Love ya!

The week begins...

trying on her heels for the first time, I was desparately trying to keep her from tripping any waitresses coming through the doorway! But at least they didn't seem to mind her once they saw what she was up to. :)

Da happy couple

Our tradition of heading downtown to the Hotel to see the trees was messed up this year, by the fact that they didn't DO the trees this year (booh hiss). So, pooh on them we found a new fun place to spend our Christmas dinner together. The fact is none of us were that thrilled w/ the food downtown anyway so we tried a totally new idea. We opted for an Irish pub with delicious food like pecan brie and crackers and wonderful pork tenderloins. They had it decorated beautifully inside w/ the dark wooded walls and high ceilings and fireplace. Even complete w/ an Irish band playing Christmas carols on the bag pipes! Not your usual place to celebrate the holiday but man did we have a good time together. Aunti D was the hit of the evening and eventually the restaurant when she hooked Abigail up with a new sparkling "Frendarella" dress complete w/ matching high heel slippers. Abigail couldn't wait to try them on and proceeded to prance around our table (and sorry , some surrounding tables) enjoying her new shoes. She at least spread some Christmas cheer to an elderly couple who got a big ole kick out of her scooting around in those ridiculous shoes! We enjoyed each other and had a beautiful and must say very breezy evening together. We took our time heading home just enjoying the windy warm evening outside together. Looking forward to where we end up next year together. Merry Christmas fam and thank you for an awesome night!!!!!

Christmas at the lake

We had a wonderful time at Mom and Dad's last week for a nice Christmas dinner together. Sue and Dave complete w/ kids in tow were able to make it in. The kids had a blast jumping all over their house starting from couch to couch then they took it to mom's room and jumped from bed to bed ultimately destroying their beds and blankets. Poor little Madeline just couldn't stand that she couldn't keep up with the older kids. And my little santa princess held her own with the boys and actually got quite bossy with them all in HER mi-mi's house! She had a ball with her "Zander" as she called him and "Hamiton". It was wonderful to see them all and get some good pictures. Mom's meal was wonderful and we stuffed ourselves silly as usual. Her house looks done up like a Christmas museum as always and the kids couldn't get enough of all her froo froo twinkling stuff. Dad just desparately tried to keep up w/ it all but this trip it's clear who favored his Pa-Pa the most, that Hamilton couldn't get enough lap time in to satisfy him. Those two are trouble and both share the same sneaky silent trend towards mischief. It was a special night together. I think it made some good memories for us all.

tree time

Saturday we had our dose of annual holiday fun to kick off the season. We had a great time choosing the best tree for this Christmas. Abigail had a blast running like a pink wildfire through the lot choosing her favorite. We finished the evening as she so sweetly declared "mommy the Chimas twee is perfect!". We even got some snow flurries to make the day even better. Brian built us a roaring fire again as we filled the house with evergreen and twinkle lights, Horray! I love Christmas!