Christmas Past

I know that this is a little late, but honestly I think that our Christmas this year was our best Christmas as a family. My morning started out with finishing my beautiful cream cheese braid, which has become a new tradition in our family because it was AMAZING and super easy. I decided to just half the dough roll it out and really braid it instead of how the recipe said to do it, and it turned out really pretty and delicious! While I was waiting for the dough to rise Aiden woke up and decided to join me in the kitchen. Then he noticed that something was different... there were packages under our tree. He slowly walked over picked up a bag and handed it to me. I told him "Yep, thats a present and it's for you. Go ahead and open it." He was just beaming with light and slowly took out the paper, set it down, then pulled out the toy. He loved it. He sat and played with it for at least 10 minutes. While he sat quietly and played I woke up Kevin and told him we should get Cooper up too to open presents. Kevin, being the amazing husband he is, suprised me with probably the greatest present this year. I woke up to two brand new and assembled bookshelves flanking my tv. I have been wanting bookshelves for a really long time to fill up some space on our empty wall and they look quite esquisite. I will post pictures once I find things to fill them with, because they look boring now. Opening presents was an all day adventure at our house for the simple fact that the boys enjoyed opening each gift and playing with it. We didn't have that big wrapping paper mess that usually is affiliated with Christmas morning and it was a nice suprise. I let Kevin be our camera man on Christmas day because he got us a new tripod. I thought he would be better... but he just shot a couple of videos and totally missed my first Christmas dinner that I prepared all by myself! I made a bacon "wrapped" turkey with sage butter and a maple glaze, sweet potatoe cassarole, garlic mashed potatoes, fresh green beans, and fresh cranberry sauce. I atttempted to make gravy and was horrible at it so Linda fixed it and she made homemade rolls. Our dinner was a feast full of goodness and fullness. We were so full we couldn't even eat dessert. We had cherry, apple, pecan, and pumpkin pie! All of which was delicious as well! I was so proud of myself and my yummy and moist turkey. After we ate I realized that my Christmas glory was never photographed! Again I blame Kevin for this. But none the less, it was a wonderful day spent with family and friends and we enjoyed all that it brought us. Here are some pictures of what they got from Grandma and some videos of Christmas day :)

Aiden opening this cool car that plays music.

Cooper and Aiden's sweet dance moves.