Christmas Happenings!

Here is a run-down of our Christmas Hip Happenings:
We did the whole Santa thing with Anna on the eve of the 23rd = making cookies for Santa, pouring milk, placing under the tree, etc.

She woke up and, being a little too young for the full wonder of Christmas, was initially more upset that Santa ate her cookies than she was excited about the presents he left.

There's a good pic in the slide show showing her with an expression of consternation as she carefully studied the empty plate, sorting out her little toddler feelings and wondering if she got a raw deal.

She then opened her presents: the train she asked Santa for, magnet letters for the fridge, a toddler memory game, and a sauce set for her kitchen. Santa made some good choices.

Santa left Curt a special present too: a positive pregnancy test all wrapped up for him. Unfortunately for us, that present chose not to stick around and at five and a half weeks, our family returned to Curt, Maria, and Anna Banana (plus two kitties). Sigh. We've got a WHOLE YEAR ahead of us to remedy that situation so wish us luck.

Then we got into what Anna called our "special car" and drove in a giant, red, Chevy pick'emup truck to Saint Louis to enjoy a beautiful Christmas children's mass with Auntie Em, Molly and Ben. (The truck happened because we thought we were picking up Uncle Joshie and family in Saint Louis and needed a six-seater and all the cool minivans were rented. They didn't end up needing a ride but we had fun being the BIG dog on the road for once ;-)

We woke up on Christmas Day at Granny's ("Gee-nies") and had a wonderful morning opening our presents and eating a delicious Christmas lunch while it snowed all morning. There is a picture in the slide show of Anna and I determinedly sledding on the half inch of snow we got. Our two-year streak of very little snow wasn't going to stop our winter fun! We headed back to Jeff City mid-day to celebrate with the Stokes clan. We were grateful for our super giant truck on the drive home after the snow.

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner with the Stokes clan and finally got to meet the famous Charlie Mae. Maria committed the cardinal sin of racing to the door and holding her first before Great-Grandma Stokes got a chance. She only felt slightly guilty. We got to spend a little time with Uncle Matty, who was leaving at 4am to fly back to Texas and perform TWO shows that day. Sheesh! We got lots of good visiting time with the rest of the clan for the next few days.

Our 7th (yes, 7th - that is not a typo) anniversary was a relaxing day spent at home and we hired a professional chef from Manhattan to cook for us and our whole family!!! (OK, we didn't hire him - it was Uncle Joshy, but the food still rocked.) If I do say so myself, the can of french fried onions I supplied really put the meal over the top! ;-) In case anyone has forgotten, you can find some wonderful cooking advice from scratch here.

For now its back to "real" life. We are enjoying some actual snow outside this evening and hope to finally build a snowman tomorrow!

Here is a slideshow of our Christmas Hip Happenings:

Christmas Favorites