It's a Girl Thang!

We had a great holiday week. It was a whirlwind and tiring, but I wouldn't change a moment of it. My brother and his wife were able to come from Tennesee, and we were all so happy to see them and spend time with them. We spent Tuesday and Christmas Eve with them.

PJ and Jackie giving Corrine loves.

Corrine hadn't seen Jackie since this summer, but she took to her wonderfully. Look at that smile!

We all watched a movie that night. The girls love their Uncle Paul and Aunt Jackie; they maul Jackie. She must get "touched out" when she is here. We joke about the heirarchy the girls have created; if Grandma is here, she is the special one, but if Uncle Paul is here, then it is him. However, if Jackie is here, she trumps everyone.

We played a game that night, and drank wassail, yummy! We also ate way too many sweets.


The next day, Christmas Eve, the girls went sledding. Grandma got them new sleds, and they had lots of fun. These are from Jason's camera, because I stayed home with the baby to finish some projects up. (The nice quiet house was just too much to resist!)

I was told Payden took quiet a spill on her sled!

Ava had fun in a sled just perfect for her.

Michaela falling off hers!

Then they all came home and we made cookies for Santa. This is a yearly tradition on Christmas Eve.

We always end up with way too many cookies, but it is fun. The girls get to decorate three cookies as elaborately as they choose; two for Santa, and one for themselves!

After we got cleaned up from cookies(you will notice a theme; I was constantly cooking and cleaning up to get ready to cook more!) we made dinner. My mom suggested a Mexican theme, so we had two kinds of enchiladas, tacos, and chips, salsa and quacamole. The enchiladas were so good. We accidently left the leftovers sitting on the counter, and I was soooo bummed we wouldn't get to eat them again!

A Mexican dinner feast!

Ava had to sprinkle her reindeer food in the snow ,and the girls put out their cookies for Santa.

I will spare you all the pictures of us opening presents, but we did that with my mom and PJ and Jackie on Christmas Eve. Each Christmas, I make matching pajamas for my girls that they get to open Christmas Eve. This was this years:

And my brother sang a moving rendition of a holiday favorite, complete with choreography.Too bad we didn't get a video, but trust me, it was stellar.

My mom spent the night with us, and in the morning we opened up all our presents. I made the girls new robes this year, this is Ava sporting hers.

This is out of order, but Christmas night the girls got to sleep in the tents Santa left for them.

Christmas night, we had Jason's family over for dinner. My mother in law, Marlene, got me American Idol for the wii. More on that in another post.

Are you noticing a theme here? Cooking and eating, cooking and eating..........

We had Jason's mom and his two brothers, David and Brian over. David brought his son, Caden, and Brian brought his new wife, Heather and her daugther, Tausha. We had a nice dinner and of course opened presents, again.

Then on Friday, we had my dad and PJ and Jackie over for breakfast and to open yet again more presents. In keeping with the theme, I cooked and we ate!

Then it was time to say goodbye to PJ and Jackie for a while. It is always so hard to say goodbye when you know how far away someone is going. One last smooch for the baby, and off they went.

Like I said, it was crazy busy but fun. In the effort to not make this post too long :), I even left out parts. I am tired, but content and happy. I love spending so much time with our family in so few days. Now I have to clean the house, so nobody come over for at least a few days!