A Bit Behind...

The beautiful (if not dangerous) ice storm yesterday made it feel Christmasy again around here. (We lost a tree limb but not the power.) It helps that I still have all our Christmas decorations up...but that's another story entirely! It reminded me that I hadn't posted anything about our Christmas. I know it is way past due, but I am going to offer up a few excuses here:

• we left Christmas day for Colorado and didn't get back until Jan. 2
• I just finished the laundry from being gone - I couldn't blog before laundry, could I? (Never mind the other times I've done just this...)
• I have a new (very cool) laptop, and hadn't figured out the different photo software on it to edit my pictures until last night
• Oh, yeah - I have a newborn (how long is this one valid?? I think I might be pushing it at this point...)

::Clears throat:: Now that we have established that it is perfectly reasonable for me to just now be blogging about Christmas, lets get started!! This Christmas was especially fun for us because our boys are older and really get it. They get the spiritual significance and look forward to the Bible stories as well as the gifts. They were also able to understand the joy of giving, not just getting. However, this realization cost us a bit more dough since they had to give Andrew a gift (each of them) and we had to give Andrew a gift, too! They are also way more animated when opening their gifts since they actually made lists and looked forward to seeing what they would get and analyzed each gift under the tree 30,000 times trying to decide exactly what it could be!

Since we were leaving Christmas day on our trip, we opened gifts on the 23rd, then they boys got their Christmas pj's on the 24th like always, and we opened stockings and had a fun breakfast on the 25th. It was like Christmas went on and on for them!

Here's the boys in their Christmas pj's on Christmas morning. Aren't they just adorable??

On Christmas morning we always have Lil' Smokies sausages and what goes with them varies. This year, I looked for a copy cat recipe for Cinnabon cinnamon rolls. I found this one. Mmmmm, they were really, really good. I highly recommend making them. The dough turned out perfect being done in the bread machine, too. I made mine the night before and left them in the fridge overnight. I let them sit out on the counter for a couple hours before baking them, and the rose just fine.

Jerry thoroughly spoiled me this year (considering I got a new laptop already...) and made it a red kitchen Christmas. I had put new pot holders, spatulas, and kitchen towels on a list for him (all in red) and he took the theme and ran with it. Check out the red kitchen loot:

That's right, he got me a new Kitchen Aid mixer!! (And somehow the red Kitchen Aid spatula and serving set got left out of the picture...) The motor in my other one burned out exactly 4 months after the warranty on it ran out and I have been mixing things with a hand held mixer for about a year now (I know - horror of all horrors!). I had mentioned wanting a new one in red and jokingly put it on a list knowing it was more than we were spending (or so I thought) and lo and behold! There it was on Christmas morning. I broke it in to make a cake earlier this week and smiled so big my face almost split in two!