Asleep

Christmas Memories

Here are the memories of our Christmas Eve that went by way too fastAmelia loves the love that Aunt Jody gives
and she loved playing with Garrett every minute that she was awake!

the girls thought Garrett was amazing in everything he could do...even peeling a pomegranate

Dinner was amazingly deelicious (b/c Jody made it & I helped)

The cheese ball got a lot of attention, Jody posed b/c she thought this picture might qualify for the cover of America's Test Kitchen magazine...we'll see.

We began our Christmas Eve by following a program that Director Bryn Harrell printed out for us (she practiced with the girls every day for a week!)

(THIS PICTURE WAS MESSED UP B/C I TRIED TO CROP IT, SORRY BRYNIE)

Everyone took their part very seriously...

Our little wise man

the angel with her star

okay, so maybe not too serious

It was a success

then we had the polar express song sung by Bryn & Summer (it made me cry b/c Bryn spent so much time teaching Summer, it was too cute)



next on her schedule was red light, green light. Then a little white elephant exchange (it was pretty extreme...itunes gift card or toilet paper...Dave won!)

Christmas morning comes so fast!!!

Amelia was trying to figure out how she was going to get to that tricycle

and she found a little help from her cousin of course.

lots of unwrapping, lots

this is why we are so sad that Christmas day came so fast...

we had to give out lots of hugs, kisses and squeezes before they rolled out of town

when they were gone, truly gone, the truth finally settled in that they weren't coming right back...

we all put our head in our hands & stared at the wall.

The MOM song...just play it!

Now that I have Bryn & Garrett here, I realize that everything I repeat to my little girls now...will not change as they grow bigger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMhuAtyFCrw

A few smiles

Summer loves the camera & I love this shot of her.This one makes me excited for Christmas morning!

When Grandma Bowen comes to town...

we warm her up to a nice fire

before sending her out on a freeeeeezing Sunday morning

then she gives all her attention to the kids (yes, that's why James is in the picture)

and wonders how a train going in a circle can keep them entertained for so long

she's there to do homework (and even as a retired teacher she agrees that directions given on a homework sheet are always more complicated than the homework itself!)

but of course their favorite activity when Grandma comes to town... decorating cookies!

she's not even done with her visit & she passed out while Summer pretended to read a book.

(we have a tendency to do that to our guests...Grandpa Bowen knows all about that...right Bruce?)

for the love of Bread

So while James was focused on what he thought was the best part of Thanksgiving (stuffing, turkey, etc) I was totally focused on the best part of the meal...

Perfectly fluffy, buttery, deelicious (and still warm when they arrived to the table)

rolls!!!

I'm looking forward to our Christmas company just so I can make these over and over again b/c these rolls are the bread of life!

(I'm selling Maren's recipe for some extra christmas cash, leave a message with my secretary)