Holidays at Home: A Tale of Two Christmases!

Like so many of you, our family enjoyed more than one Christmas this year -- one at home, one at the kids' house. 

 

That was our first one and it actually began a bit earlier in the week when Rick when down to kid-sit and I followed a couple of days later. They boys are six and seven (nearly eight) so it's a fun age to be with them. They're still young enough to have some magic in them, so when we went to the bookstore we came home with the elf on the shelf. It certainly kept them occupied.

(Personally, I think Elf on the Shelf is a little creepy -- there's enough Big Brother out there without encouraging it. But it does keep little ones on their toes and slightly better behavior!)

We also decorated a gingerbread house. This year we found one that was pre-built, which saved a lot of grief!

And of course after, we had to have a few photos!

(One of which had to be goofy, of course!) 

Naturally, everyone had to grab hold of Waffles the Cat more than once! This cat is clearly the most patient feline ever born!

 

Uncle Greg arrived on Saturday and he and Kevin built the kids a fort from an old sofa box, wired with disco lights! I think every blanket and stuffed animal in the house found its way into that fort!

Our Christmas Eve was on Monday and Chef Kevin whipped up a pretty amazing dinner. Grandpa was in charge of teaching a new generation how to peel potatoes!

You can almost see all of us here!

After, we continued a long-standing tradition of decorating cookies on "Christmas Eve," one Rick and I started with Kevin and Greg when they were small. Everyone got into the act and those little guys were pretty good at it!

I was amazed at how well the boys handled frosting in piping bags.

Rick is good at it, too, doing some painstaking work on holly berries.

This year we didn't have homemade cookies to decorate but I found some round sugar cookies at the store and added some Pepperidge Farm holiday shortbreads to it. That worked out really well!

Christmas morning was the morning of the 24th and everyone got into the act!

The kids were rocking their Santa specs! 

Lots of opening and then some playing games, too!

And, we all took turns coloring in the drawings on Cam's PJs! 

 

We took off in the afternoon, in time to make it at church and to a Christmas Eve dinner at friend Kate's, who graciously welcomed two weary travelers! That prepped us for the next morning! Presents!

And of course, later in the afternoon, there were more presents, this time at  Rick's!

Later, a pretty table . . . 

Mom's Fostoria crystal, silver and Spode Christmas plates returned to the scene.

But other "friends" were represented at the table -- the amaryllis that was a party favor from a recent Cork Poppers, a bowl of ornaments made by my Mistetoe Market friend, Jane, a holiday silver music box bell from friend Lin, and greens gathered at friend Barb's earlier this year. The vintage tablecloth was from Panoply blogger Rita. 

After some appetizers and wine. . .

. . . we sat down to a lovely dinner, followed by "White Christmas!".

But I think it is this image of Waffles that says it all.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!  

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