Merry Christmas

We had a nice quite Christmas at home this year. We took the kids out to see Christmas lights. A few miles away there is a home that synchronizes the lights to a local radio station. It was a very impressive display. Both kids fell asleep in the car before we even got to that house. We'll have to remember that sleep trick for next year.

For Christmas breakfast, we had monkey bread. I think we're trying to make a tradition of it. There is a store bought brand that only takes 2 and 1/2 minutes to heat in the microwave and it tastes awesome. We enjoyed it with coffee from Dolphin's new Aeropress and Cocao Loco from my stocking.

Xander's present from Santa this year was a corrugated paper (lay people call this cardboard) castle. It was easy for Dolphin to assembly while I...I mean er...Santa had the tough job of eating cookies. This gift was inspired by a few of my old childrens books. After reading a few to Xander, I kept seeing this old advertisement for a house that kids could draw on. Low and behold, they still make these houses and now, in quite a few shapes and sizes including this awesome castle. Xander is totally in to art these days so I thought it would be perfect. What was most surprising about this gift was that it took Xander something like 7 passes of walking right by it before he noticed it. Seriously? It's gigantic! This is possibly another indication that he takes after me..."one track mind".



Aria's present from Santa was a little tykes outdoor swing that I got off craigslist. She's going to love it when get it set up in the backyard. As expected, she was pretty much interested in eating the paper. I did put a few outfits for her under the tree. One was this yellow sundress which I layered with a onesie to make it appropriate for the colder weather. Despite an ear infection, she brought her usual ray of sunshine personality that matched her dress well.



Grandma Carla and Grandpa Tom got a Kindle for the kids. Its instantly become a family favorite. Xander and I spent a good 30 minutes playing Angry Birds. Time wasters aside, we've enjoyed readying some of the free books already including Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know and When Cows Fly.


Our Christmas dinner was steak, potatoes, spinach salad, and green beans. I made little personal sized fruit hand pies filled with cranberries, apple, blueberries, and blackberries. Yummy!