CHRISTMAS 2011

We did Christmas a few days early this year since I worked both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and we were travelling the day after Christmas. We wanted to be able to enjoy the day together without being rushed. It was a perfect day.


First off, before Christmas we decided to do a "gingerbread" house for FHE one night. Not having done one before, I was completely unprepared. I ended up getting the square graham crackers (there was no indication they were square on the box), and then I realized afterward that it would have been better to do the house the day before and let it dry before trying to decorate it. Oh well. Shade loved helping me pick out the candy at the store, and we did enjoy what little we got done. We decided to not finish it since we weren't planning on eating it anyway, and Shade got bored pretty quickly (he was more interested in eating the candy of course).


The excitement of our "Christmas Eve" - Thursday, December 22nd.


Christmas!! Kellen and Shade got up before me and went to the store to get donuts and orange juice - Shade's and my favorite breakfast! (Not Kellen's, but he's sweet like that.)


Strangely enough, Shade's favorite present always seems to be one of the cheapest ones we get him. This year, it was the big Mater to go along with his big Lightning McQueen (from last year). They are both bubble bath-and only $7. Look at his face -why did we bother with other presents?


One thing that made this Christmas so special - every present that Shade got, he would get real excited/happy and then say "thanks for my present guys!!" There were plenty of hugs and kisses given in gratitude that day. Awesome.

The spoils of the day:


We got a family present-a portable DVD player. Mostly because we were planning on travelling for a long time to visit family. It turned out to be a great investment!

Kellen's big present was a breadmaker (half-off from some guy at his work, unfortunately not a Bosch) -strange I know, but being a financial analyst he was constantly telling me how that was one of the best money investments, yadda yadda, especially since I don't have energy/motivation to make bread by myself. It worked out though-he has successfully made delicious bread several times now, and with half the clean-up. As for me, I got a new hand mixer since our other one burned out - just what I needed :) It was a perfect day!