Christmas

Christmas was such a nice time for our family. Ashley was able to come to visit, leaving college and her family to spend some time with Jace. They were both so happy to have some time together. Jordon enjoyed some board game time ... but not enough according to him. The rest of us do not know how to play his favorite game Heroscape and it is VERY involved! We had to set the large dining room table so he had to tear his game back down. Tori & Tacia were just happy to have some new jammies to spend the day in! Claire and Cade were busy "cooking" away as they each got a little apron to use at their great reused kitchen set! I think that Cade just liked that he could make noise with the pots and pans. I think that Cade also thought it was pretty cool to be able to fit in one of my antique crocks in the front room :)

My parents and James helped me to cook such an amazing meal! We had prime rib and turkey since Ashley does not eat red meat. I must say for the first time ever my turkey was better than my prime rib! I think I cooked it too long ... plus that convection bake is just too quick! Notes to remember for next time! We did have carrots though! Oh the carrots we had ... you see on Christmas eve jenny was heading to the grocery store. She asked if there was anything that I needed, I said cranberries and carrots. I told her, "I do not want those baby carrots just a big ugly bag of carrots." Oh a big ugly bag she did get .... 25 pounds!!!! I love my friends they know just how to keep me humble. I threatened to pour them into a trough the next day in the center of the table and have just that! Well, as it turned out my carrots were not done with dinner. They were not done until dinner was over. Sweet Jenny ate them with me anyway :) It was fun! We decided to not fix all my traditional foods the traditional way. Our green beans were stir fried with onions instead of souped up and the potatoes only had one stick of butter vs two :)

We finished the evening by Curt and Susan stopping by to have dessert with us. Susan made this bomb of a cookie recipe! I love it when she brings cookies over :) It was such a relaxing day. I really enjoyed the quietness of it all.