Ho! Ho! Ho!

....PIMP!

I think maybe only fans of "The Office" will get that title. {wink}

Did you all have a nice Christmas? I do believe that we just finished up what is quite possibly the best Christmas ever. Which is remarkable when you consider that the previous week was all fevers and vomit for us. I don't know how we managed to get everything finished but somehow, we made it happen. Presents got wrapped, cards got sent, home got cleaned (enough), and food got cooked. McKenna left cookies and a note for Santa and she was so excited to see that he ATE the cookies and wrote her back. She keeps saying "Santa ate my cookies!" Although she's still counting down the days until Christmas. She gets that we celebrated already. But I think she wants to do it all again because she keeps saying "Santa comes in 2 days."

Erick was scheduled to work Christmas morning from 7am-3pm. So Christmas brunch at my place was just gonna be me and the girls, my Mom and Tony, My Dad and Cheryl, Cheryl's Granddaughters (Brittney and Breona), my sister and Brian and the boys. Everyone was bringing food so I just kept it way easy on myself and made: 2 batches of monkey bread (Sommer's recipe), ham/asparagus/cream cheese roll-ups (Julie's creation), pigs-in-a-blanket (Tammy's idea), sliced cheese and Usinger's sausage (my traditional Christmas gift from my Grandma) and coffee. My Mom brought fresh fruit and juice. Cheryl brought 2 breakfast casseroles. My sister brought bagels and cream cheese. We had plenty of food. We did NOT have plenty of space. I have a pretty decent sized living room (for an apartment) but once all the gifts were brought in, we had very little space to work with. A good problem to have though. = )

The very best Christmas gift I received by far came around 11am. Right after everyone arrived, we were all hugging, greeting each other, putting presents under the tree, getting ready to serve the food. A very warm holiday scene.... when who walks in the door? ERICK!!!! I couldn't believe it. I thought I might actually cry. His work had enough staff on hand so they held a lottery drawing to let one staff member go home and Erick won! It was so wonderful to have him with us for the whole day. Last year, if you remember, he was 1) sick 2) worked Christmas eve and 3)worked a double shift on Christmas day. So this year we were just grateful we would actually get him on Christmas night. Imagine my surprise and elation to have him for the whole day? To have him walk in right at the start of our Christmas morning festivities. It was the best surprise and I could not have asked for a more perfect Christmas gift. It was hands-down the greatest gift of the entire day.

The whole day did just zoom by. First we had the brunch with my family. Then they left and we put McKenna and Kyla down for naps. Erick and I exchanged gifts and opened our stockings. Then Erick played with his new XBox games and I worked on some scrap LO's for my in-laws. Then Kenna woke up and we opened her presents and stocking from Santa. Then we all got dressed and headed to my in-laws for dinner. More food, more presents. My brother-in-law was in town with his family so it was a lot of fun this year to have busy households full of kids for all of the Christmas festivities. We got home around 9pm and put the girls to bed but Kyla decided she wanted to wake up and open HER Santa gifts and stocking.

I still don't know half of what the girls received because I was passing out gifts and Erick was helping them open. But they got spoiled beyond belief.

Some of McKenna's noteables: A pink electric guitar, a Disney Princess cd player, a Tinkerbelle backpack, a huge set of dress-up shoes, puzzles, books (my favorite are a set of classic children's stories illustrated by Iza Trapani, tons of clothes (my favorite is a leopard-print dress with cream turtle-neck), a preschool laptop (highly recommend! Available at Target for $15 and it is perfect for 2-3 year olds!), my Lil Ponies, vintage flash cards from the 1930's (how fashionably kitsch is that?), a beautiful framed fairy poster, a hand-knit outfit, a Disney Princess lamp, a ballerina tutu, Candyland, the Dora Talking Dollhouse and a doll-sized wooden cradle for her baby dolls.

Some of Kyla's noteables: Tons of clothes (my favorite is the fur-trimmed leopard print outfit that matches Kenna's dress), tons of rattles and snuggle toys, a Lullabye light show, a huge peek-a-block set, a Learning Puppy, a Twirlin' Whirlin' Turtle, Pet Pal Rounds, a Classical Chorus gym, her first baby doll, a Baby Einstein Nesting Barn, and a hand-knit outfit.

I think both girls got TRU gift cards but I can only find one for McKenna so I'm not sure?

Together, Erick and I got a Blockbuster gift card with lots of snacks, 2 movie passes with a night of babysitting, luggage, a flameless electronic candle from Brookstone (perfect for people with toddlers), a Target gift card, a collage frame and a TON of cash from his family.

Erick received: A LOT of gift credit to Best Buy. Everyone in my family knows that's the fail-safe gift to give him. A WWII dvd, a CSI Forensic puzzle, Serenity on DVD, 2 XBox 360 games (his big gift was the XBox 360 that he got last month)and a cribbage board.

I got: silky red pajamas, a pink tool set (it's an actual tool set but EVERYTHING is pink and it comes in a pink tool box), a gift card to the mall, picture frames, scented lotions and soaps, Memory Makers software (all you digital scrappers MUST get this program). And Erick totally went all-out this year. Completely spoiled me. I was so excited to see what he picked out. I didn't have a clue what even one single gift was. Everything was a surprise that I loved. He bought me LOST: Season 1 on DVD, DKNY's "Be Delicious" perfume, a gift card to New York & Company and......a black ipod nano!!! I am so excited! I love to listen to music while I scrap but having PSCS open hogs all my memory. So now I can listen while I scrap, if the girls have the tv on I can at least hear some music of my own for a change, I can listen to music while I do dishes! I told my sister "I can wear it in an armband when I work out." And look what that bish replied with: "Who you jokin'? You don't work out. You want the armband so you have two free hands to open your kitkats!" LOL Can you believe how mean she is? Ok, she's right. I workout about 7 times a year total whereas those kit-kats DO require two hands to unwrap and then snap them into four pieces. I'm just sayin'....the armband would come in handy for that.

(Note: If you're reading this and I didn't mention a gift you gave, I either a) can't see it in my line of sight from where I sit or b) I may not know it was given! I have no clue all that the girls or Erick got. It was madness here!!) I think one of the greatest things about presents isn't the actual gift but seeing how well your family and friends actually know you. When I opened something and saw that my Mom knew my pajama size better than I did or that my Dad and Cheryl knew Erick was into WWII (I never told them, how did they know?) or that Gina (who was my secret santa) got McKenna Cinderella toys, knowing that Cinderella is McKenna's current favorite princess....it just made me so grateful for having so many people who care enough to KNOW us. I think that's far more special then the actual gift itself.

I'm also anxiously awaiting the gift from my sister. We always exchange a family photo or a photo of the kids. Well she FORGOT mine. Shame. Shame. But she did email me this pic of the boys the other day. Look how cute my nephews are:



Aren't they just dolls? I love them so much. I also have to tell you this story she emailed me the other day. I'll just c&p the email because its too cute:

AW SHANNON! Lukey is coloring right now and he made some scribbles and said "Deetee" and I said did you draw auntie? and he said "aw titty" Pretty!!! How cute he thinks his auntie is pretty!

Isn't he the sweetest in the entire universe? I miss him already.

Ok, I kind of got off-topic there. I think I was trying to lead up to show you the LO I made for my sister's gift. I used Gina Miller's Miss Sassy Pants freebie. You can see it here. I have some more cute stories but this entry is already getting long so I'll post some more tomorrow maybe. Until then, here are pictures from our Christmas.

I need to add some disclaimers here. First of all, McKenna's hair has become its own entity. It's always been fine and curly and therefore, difficult to manage. But since we were all sick and spent a lot of time laying down and skipping shampoo time, the back of her hair is now just like a dread-lock. Its so tangled and wiry. I am dying to go get her hair cut but when I ask her if she wants a hair cut she yells "NO WAY!" So I fear actually going because I don't want a melt-down. But we obviously need to because she won't even let me COMB her hair anymore. Plus she still has a runny nose from her cold so she just looked like a little ragamuffin for Christmas. And second, the first set of pics are from my Mom so there aren't any captions. I don't know if you'll be able to figure out who everyone is but just guess. = P And the final disclaimer - it was a warm Christmas here in So Cal. So we're all shiny. LOL! I know my sister will appreciate that I added that disclaimer in for the both of us!

Christmas Morning

Oh no wait - the last disclaimer - my inlaws are remodeling their home. Hence why you'll see a rack of clothes in the background. Didn't want you to think my MIL isn't a good housekeeper. LOL! Or think that the rack of clothes was just a really odd Christmas gift someone received.

Christmas Night

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well. I'm looking forward to blog-cruising and reading updates on your family fun! So be sure to post!