I didn’t realize how many pictures I had, and if I try and do one post, it’s going to take 2 hours to write. I’ll try and get it all posted in different parts so I don’t bore everyone to tears. We woke up on Christmas Eve pretty excited because it snowed! It wasn’t much and was gone by that afternoon, but it did snow a little bit.

My awesome Christmas pj’s…and the 3 year old who ran outside to see the snow

We met at my mom’s house mid-morning to start the fun filled Christmas weekend. My Grandma, uncles, aunt, and cousins all came over for a day of relaxing, lots of food and a gift exchange later in the day.

For appetizers, we had chips and salsa, cheese and salami, cheese dips and crackers, my mom’s famous chip beef dip and 5 million cookies. You can tell where my priorities are, because I didn’t get one picture of the actual Christmas Eve dinner which was ham, ranch “crack” potatoes, spicy corn casserole and a vegetable tray.

And then for dessert I made the ultimate in Christmas desserts, a white chocolate peppermint cheesecake. The recipe originally called for peppermint extract, but I decided to get creative and crushed a box of candy canes instead. Perfection. This was my first cheesecake I’ve ever made, and I have to say it was delightful!

My soon to be sister in law showing off her sparkle from her engagement ring.

Since dinner was taking a little longer than expected, we decided to exchange gifts so the little kids would have some new toys to keep them entertained and so we wouldn’t have to hear “Is Santa on his way?” One more time!!

My gifts: a lazy susan vegetable tray (that I’ll be putting to use for my new year’s eve party), a cookbook (that I want to try every recipe!) and two candles.

And the party animal, who along with his 2 week old brother kept their poor parents up all night long…

After my Grandma and uncles and cousins left, it was my family, my mom and brothers and two little babies for the night. We put the kids to bed and then set up Santa gifts, stockings and finished wrapping some gifts.

And that ends part 1…I’ll do another portion later!!!

Once my kids wake up, I’m not sure when I’ll have time to post again until Monday, but I wanted to say Merry Christmas to you all. I hope this holiday season was one of joy and you were able to create memories and enjoy your friends and family…the way it should be!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours! xoxo

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago talking about what the JcPenney snow globes mean to me.  A few days later, a woman at church who’s husband works at JcPenney gave one to my Mom and she was thrilled. I was happy my Mom got one, but was still pretty upset that my own snow globe collection would always have a missing year.

I received an email from Biz, and she asked for my mailing address, no questions asked. I forgot all about that email until I went to get the mail today and saw a shiny red/white striped package in my mail box. As I sat reading the card, tears started streaming down my face. She saw my post and then found an auction on Ebay for the snow globe and won it for me.

My collection is now complete and my heart is full of gratitude. Christmas was my Dad’s favorite time of year and it’s a very hard time of year without him. Biz, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

This, my friends, is what Christmas is all about. 

Merry Christmas!!!

Back in the day, radio stations did not play 24/7 Christmas music until Christmas Eve, but my Dad took matters into his own hands. Every year on Christmas Eve and Christmas day while the stations were playing 24 hours of Christmas music, he would record them onto cassette tapes so we could listen to them in the car starting around Thanksgiving. So smart, Dad, so smart.

So, from a very young age, I grew to love the sounds of Christmas and would sing along and just as loud and annoying as my Dad.

For many, many years, I thought a certain song was called Silver Balls and I would sing that loud and proud whenever I heard it. As we all got older, we continued singing Silver Balls and made that once joyous song a dirty song.

Now that my Dad is no longer with us, I try and carry on the tradition of blasting Christmas music and embarrassing my children as much as possible with my horrendous singing voice.

What was the point of this post again? Oh, right. To show the rest of my decorations…as I was putting the rest of them up, Silver Balls Bells came on and sent me down memory lane.

These are the only mice welcome in our house. To the little mouse I saw in the garage: You are not welcome!

Now that my youngest is almost 4, it’s safe to put out the nativity set again. Poor figurines never stood a chance before…

This was my Dad’s collection. JcPenney hands out these little snow globes on Black Friday and my Dad collected them every year. He died in April 2010, and we put the 2010 snowglobe on his headstone last year. This year we arrived at JcPenney at 4:05 this year (they opened at 4) and we were too late to get one. My Mom was devastated. If anyone has one from this year and you don’t want it, I will pay you for it. Seriously.

I love this little figurines and have them displayed all through the house. Little Cindy Loo above will be posted in every post from now until Christmas so keep your eyes peeled.

Don’t forget to enter the Primal Strips giveaway!!!