Merry Christmas!!!

In the very wee hours of the morning, two little boys woke up their parents and grandparents (Papa Rich and Yvette) and crept downstairs to see what Santa had left them. While the adults started coffee and took a couple of moments to wake up, the boys opened up their stockings. We have had a tradition in the Shaon house since I can remember of ME dividing the packages according to the name tags and we open gifts one at a time in order of youngest to eldest. I don't know why we do it this way, but this year was no exception. We did let the boys open ALL of their gifts first before we opened ours. We had a wonderful breakfast casserole and bacon and the best tamales that my dad and Yvette bring each year. Dinner preparations began shortly after 12:00 noon. My sister Amanda joined us that afternoon when she finished her shift at work. I hope your Christmas was as wonderful as ours!!!!

Christmas Eve (part 2)

I know it seems silly to continue writing about Christmas Eve 2009 when February 2010 is almost over, but I don't think I can continue if I skip events, so here we go. After Christmas Eve dinner and opening presents, we played THE BEST GAME EVER!!! Just Dance (WII) Oh my goodness, it was so much fun (thanks Lauren for bringing it). We went out and purchased our very own copy the day after Christmas.

Christmas Eve (part 1)

We have spent Christmas Eve at Ken and Cindy's home for the past 4 years. This year we celebrated with Ken and Cindy, Zak and Lauren, and Devin. We had dinner and exchanged presents with them before going home to sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn and put out those fabulous Christmas cookies that we made earlier that day. Aiden received an art easel with a whiteboard, chalkboard, 2 rolls of paper and markers and Blake received about 10 boxes of different Lego sets from Ken and Cindy. Zak and Lauren bought Blake Nerf Dart Tag and bought Aiden a gumball machine. Devin and Stephanie bought the boys a super fun Star Wars game. They had full stockings to open at their house as well. Being the only grandchildren definitely has some rewards!!!!! Oh, and if you're wondering about the orange ring around both of their mouths in all of the pictures, that would be the Orange Crush we let them have at dinner....oops!

Frosting anyone?

Making cookies for Santa was one project..... it was an entirely separate project to frost the cookies later that afternoon. If you read the post just before this one you will notice that although it is the same day, Aiden is not in the same clothes... hmmmmm..... I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Cookies for Santa

Christmas Eve morning at our house means baking sugar cookies for Santa Claus. This year I was a lot more hands-off just like the gingerbread house (see post below). There isn't much to tell other than the kitchen was an absolute disaster.... the kitchen table was covered with flour, cookie dough and colored frosting. The floor had to be swept and mopped and the counters with caked with cookie ingredients as well. I can't imagine a better way to spend Christmas Eve morning!!!

Thoroughbred Lane

We have a Christmas tradition with the Surrell Family that has being going on since 2005. We look at Christmas Lights on Thoroughbred Lane. We always meet before sunset so we can get a parking spot, we look at lights on several blocks beginning at Thoroughbred Lane and then we go out to dinner. This is a tradition that our family looks forward to every year. This year the Gossett Family joined us and so did the Stanley family. We had a really good time strolling along the lane looking at all of the lights. I am hoping that in the very near future I will be able to walk along without worrying about Aiden getting hit by a car. I found myself repeating OVER and OVER again, please stay by the curb, please hold my hand, please slow down, AIDEN, AIDEN, AIDEN. Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread House

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The boys and I have made a gingerbread house for the past 3 years. Each year they complete more of the house than the year before. This year I frosted the house and they did all of the decorating. I didn't touch the gingerbread house at all or help in any way during the decorating process and they did a fantastic job! They licked the frosting off of their fingers quite often so there is no way that anyone is going to eat it, but at least it is a nice decoration and a fun family tradition!