ScrumpyDaddy

Merry Christmas! Abby woke up at around 6am and joined us in bed until about 6:30. She got up and went down stairs to see if Santa had come. He had! She said that he had eaten the cookies she left him, drank the milk, and the reindeer ate the carrot. Zach heard the noise and got up.

We all headed downstairs. Dave got the coffee started and Abby began to look at the presents. She was reading all the names on them and played Santa handing out the presents. She needed a little help understanding the to and from part of the tag in order to know who it should be given to. She was very excited to start opening gifts and didn’t want to wait. I just love the excitement, though a little patience would have been nice. We wanted to put Christmas music on and didn’t get to before she started opening gifts.

Zach on the other hand could have cared less about opening gifts. We kept trying during the whole present opening time to get him to rip and pull the paper off the gifts, but Abby ended up doing most of it for him. He liked the paper after it was off the gift, but didn’t really help get it off. At his 2nd birthday or next Christmas I am sure he will be just like his sister ripping the paper off and immediately wanting the toy opened.

After gift opening we had a wonderful breakfast of cinnamon rolls and sausage links. Yum!

After breakfast Abby tried her new WII game and controller. It was great they make kid size WII controllers that come in pink or green. We of course got pink for Abby. The controller is slightly smaller and fits perfectly in her hand. Check her out playing Nickelodeon Fit. I would recommend this to any parent. It is wonderful and really gets them moving while watching some of their favorite characters. It has the Backyardigans, Dora, Diego, and one that we didn’t know Kai-lan.

We headed over to my inlaw’s house around 10:45. Dave’s sister and brother-in-law were already there (they stay there when visiting – live in Raleigh, NC). My father-in-law was out picking up Dave’s Grandmother. She moved back to the Pittsburgh area last spring. It is great having her in town. We were waiting on Dave’s brother and his family to come over when we got call from him around 11:30 saying they weren’t coming over. Unfortunately his brothers son was up all night getting sick so they weren’t coming over. Bummer! It is always hard to get sick, but especially around the holidays. Hopefully we will see them again soon when everyone is healthy.

We ended up having a very nice day. Zach did much better in the afternoon actually opening his gifts. They got some wonderful gifts like a little people zoo and fire truck. Abby got a pink Barbie BW Beetle. Not too much, which was nice considering how crowded our playroom already is. I am going to put away some of the baby stuff that Zach doesn’t really play with anymore. He likes to play with whatever Abby is playing with, which at times causes quite the problems.

We left the in-law’s house around 4:30pm to come home and play some more with our new toys. Dave’s brother and his family were heading over there and we didn’t want to take the chance of our kids getting whatever they had, especially since we are heading to Rochester for New Years to be with my family.

We spent the rest of the night playing with toys and then Dave and I enjoyed watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” together after the munchkins were in bed. We had a great Christmas together!

Here is what you don’t do and I will hope to never do again on Christmas Eve. Go to the grocery store. Ugh! Oh the lines, the cars, and the people. Unfortunately, there were a couple of things we needed for the weekend.

Here is what you do on Christmas Eve…spend time with family and friends. After some stress in the afternoon (couldn’t find 3 gift cards we had gotten a couple weeks ago – found them after tearing apart the house) and a slightly rushed dinner to make it to church (got there 5 min. late) we had a very nice evening.  The church services was wonderful. Lots of great Christmas music for the whole family to enjoy. Zach loved running around the sanctuary. We have been attending a church called The Hills for the past month, which has its services at a local high school. Not formal, which is great for the kids.

After we got home from the church the kids opened up their Christmas Eve gifts. We have gotten in the tradition of getting the kids new pajamas for Christmas Eve. Though, I do have a complaint. For all those people who switch sizes around at stores I am not very happy with you. Well…the pajamas we got Abby, I didn’t look at the size of the pants when I picked them up because it was a pair together (top and bottom). They were not separates. Apparently someone had switched the size of the pants at some point. The shirt was perfect, size 5, the pants were a size 6 and falling off of her. She loved them though so I had to roll the top of the pants down so they weren’t falling off and she wasn’t stepping on the bottoms. I don’t think Abby cared in the least, but I did.

After opening the pajamas and getting them changed we opened Grammy’s gift. She sent the kids the book The Night Before Christmas which she recorded herself reading it. Abby was very excited. She ended up listening to it twice and would probably have listened to it more if we had let her. It was one of my fondest memories growing up listening to my Grandfather read my sister and I the book each year. I hope this turns into one of Abby and Zach’s fondest memories as well.

Overall, it was a wonderful night!

I know this may not seem like a very large accomplishment, especially when their are awesome bloggers out there raising all kinds of money for the needy and collecting toys for kids (Christmas Crazy), but to me, this year anyways, it is enough.

I got my Christmas cards mailed out. People will receive a Christmas card from us and before Christmas even. For the past 2 years we have bought Christmas cards (the kind with the pictures of the kids on it) and for the past 2 years the only people that have received cards are the ones lucky enough to have seen us. Everyone else, well…you were not forgotten just time sped by and ran out. It seemed stupid by mid January to still be sending out Christmas cards so we just didn’t.

Ah…Christmas is going to be great this year. Now all I have left to do is everything else.

Yes, yes I know. This is the first official blog in months. Funny how something breaks and takes a little time to fix and then you get out of the habit of doing it. Well, for me that was the blog. I have been meaning to do this for weeks, well actually I guess months now. Here it is folks, I’m back. My goal is a post a week to start and we can go from there.

Cookie Mania was the theme for the weekend. I might actually be tired of cookies already and I have hardly eaten any. Good thing we will be giving a bunch away to friends and family.

The mania began yesterday morning after breakfast. Actually after I did the dishes. I’ve got to find a way to do the dishes more often. I think we had dishes from last weekend still to do. It’s just during the week we never want to do them. After having worked all day, then playing with the kids and getting them ready for bed we have no desire to clean anything. We just want to sit and try to spend a little time together before we pass out.

Anyways, the first cookies we made were the sugar cookies so that Abby could help. Sorry Zach maybe you can help next year. Zach had a snack and played with play dough (ate some of that) while we made cookies. Abby helped Daddy roll out the dough and then used the cookie cutters to cut her favorite shapes. We did green Christmas trees and stockings and then red stockings, candy canes, and bells. This took about 1 1/2 hours with Abby helping to make just one batch of sugar cookies. By then it was time for lunch and Dave made a second batch all cut out and decorated in 25 minutes. Wow!

During rest time (Abby didn’t actually sleep, just played and read quietly in her room) Dave ran to the store for a couple of things so I attempted to make the chocolate chip cookies. Never again! Dave makes them much better and I think it is because he creams the Crisco and sugar by hand. I’m not interested in doing that.

After the kids got up Dave and I made the chocolate cookies (some with peanut butter chips), buckeyes, and trash. Then we took the kids out back to play in the snow for bit. We went sledding down our hill again. The kids just love it. Sometimes it is great to have a yard with a hill that is good for sledding.

The last cookie for the night we attempted to make were raspberry thumbprint cookies. They did not turn out so well. We let the butter get too soft and they just oozed everywhere in the oven and didn’t hold their form. Abby had a great time putting the raspberry jam in the center before baking and that was the highlight.

Cookie Mania continued on today after church. We stopped at my in-laws to get the pizzele maker. While Abby watched Ice Age 2 we made 2 batches of pizzelles (vanilla and anise) and another batch of the raspberry thumbprints. I was not giving up on the thumbprints. This time we left the butter in the fridge and did not soften it. They turned out great! I am so happy we tried again.

Well…it was a great weekend and cookie mania is over for the cooking portion at least. Now it is time to enjoy eating them and giving them to friends and family.