Santa Claus found our house!

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends. We have had a busy and exciting day so this will be brief (ha!). The boys woke at the crack of dawn as usual and got to play with their Santa presents and open their stockings. They were dressed alike in their reindeer jammies and Ethan just adored showing Jason all his presents. Jason just liked the chew toys best.

Waiting on breakfast....with JT eating his new cell phone/chew toy:





Our beautiful tree:


The haul:



Jason wearing Ethan's stocking stuffer.....E loves sunglasses and sports them in the next picture surveying his Santa presents (the unwrapped ones).





Daddy is dressed for the minute in green....but Jason got him before long.


And E gets dressed and insists on wearing his new belt even without belt loops...


And notice how he will not put down the drill. I wish there was an off switch on this and the guitar...mental note...do not buy toys without volume switches and adult friendly on/off switches.



Notice Jeff is now in blue. Thanks, Jason!

After stockings, the 4 of us had a fabulous pancake, eggs and sausage breakfast and then got dressed and waited for the grandparents before opening all the rest. Aunt Susan arrived bearing gifts and food. We had a wonderful present for all when Granddaddy Ed came for the dinner party and we were thankful he had good flying weather and made it.

Menu:
We had quite the dinner choices thanks to help from Mom B, Susan, and Aunt Marie:



Main course:
Turkey, stuffing and gravy (Mom B)
Ham with cranberry chutney (Jenn - like how hard was this one?)
Corn casserole (Aunt Marie)
Broccoli casserole (Susan)
Spinach stuffed tomatoes (Aunt Marie)
Autumn salad (recipe from Grandmother Whitfield and made by Susan)
Cranberry walnut mold (Mom B)
Deviled eggs (I actually made this one)

For appetizers (I did all of these):
Brie with a fig pear jam
Blue cheese and walnut dip with crostini and tapenade
Pears and grapes
Smoked salmon with horseradish and capers

Desserts:
I can't type this much but my mother bought pies...apple, harvest berry, pecan.
I made cupcakes, lemon bars, 7 layer bars, almond toffee bars, peanut butter grahams, Jeff's bourbon balls (Mom's recipe and hard work too), choc magic cookies, Christmas cookies etc etc etc.


Family pics:

A few of us ripping the presents open....





The train table from Aunt Jean and trains from Jeff and I (with a cool tunnel from Grandmother and Granddaddy Ed)






And a few of us playing with E's tractor from Grandma and Grandpa (being opened above):








JT looks so grown up there....sigh....

And a peek at the sand and water table for JT from Grandma and Grandpa:



And some of the rest of the family and the kids:
















Christmas reflections:

We need to do even less next year!

Remind me that I need to hide the Chipmunks CD from Ethan. He loves it and rocks out in his carseat but trust me when I tell you, there is only so much an adult can take. Thanks for this one Jeff. :-)

Sharing is a two way street....Jason doesn't just have to share with Ethan.

Buy 2 Christmas trees next year since Ethan continually asked if we could decorate again and I so wanted to say "okay".

I love the Heat Meiser and Rudolph needs to get a voice coach or sinus medication.