Christmas Eve

Well, I know it was a week ago, but I'm finally getting around to posting my Christmas Eve Pictures. 

This is me trying to get a nice picture of my wiggly and excited four year old in front of the Christmas Tree....It didn't go that well.

 

  





As much as Ken (& Ayden) hate it, I try to get a family picture every year.  I feel like at least I know we'll have one family picture per year to document how fast time passes!!

We go to my Grandparent's house every year on Christmas Eve.  As our family has grown to 25, my Grandma decided to try having us all in the garage.  My grandparents don't have a regular garage.  It is completely finished and painted, she rolled out carpeting, and set up heaters.  It was so nice to have us all in the same room at big tables, rather than having to split between smaller tables all over dining room, living room, and family room.

 Present sorting is serious business!!

Ayden and my cousin's son, Nathan, are the only kids.  They stole the show and were totally the center of attention while opening presents.  Ayden was more interested in helping Nate open his presents than opening his own...we had to keep pushing him along so we wouldn't be there all night!



Ayden & Nate



Happy Birthday to Me!

Mine and my brother's birthdays are December 20th and 23rd, respectively.  We celebrated all weekend...Saturday was dinner with my Dad & Jill, followed by a Nerf War at our house.



Ayden & Dominique protecting themselves

 

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On Sunday, we went Bowling with my Mom & Frank, followed by another yummy dinner out!

Matthew, Dominique, Mom, & Frank (he was reading because he couldn't bowl with his injured knee)

He was very eager to help me open my presents!

Ayden was so proud of himself - he wrapped my "present" (one of my magazines, put in a box and wrapped) all by himself.  He even write on it!

Holiday Baking & Preschool Christmas Program

Ayden's Preschool Christmas program was last week....He did a pretty good job singing, but there were just too many songs.  He sang distraction-free for about the first two and a half songs, then the tree behind him got really interesting, I guess.  And he had to make sure his friend standing next to him knew about it too.  This picture pretty much sums it up - another teacher (who will be his kinder teacher next year) taking his bells away and getting them back on task....As you can see - he's listening very intently! 

Sometime, amid all of the holiday business, I found a little time to do a little baking - I didn't do as much as I usually do, but did a little, as well as these cute hot chocolate mug gifts for Ayden's teachers at school. I'm pretty proud of how they turned out!

 These are my new holiday (and maybe other occasion) must-have.  I got the recipe here and they taste as good as they look!!!

 

Pre-Christmas Fun!!

We went with a bunch of family to The Singing Christmas Tree presentation at a local church.  This is a fun event that we have attended quite a few times over the years, but this is the first time that Ayden has gone.  He complained about having to get "dressed up", but then again, he complains every time he has to wear something other than sweats.  After I got him dressed, he looked pretty darn handsome, and so old!!!



He looks so much older than 4!



"Let me do a silly face, Mommy!"



Ayden & Grandma

The Singers in the Christmas Tree

Then, the following night, Ayden's preschool sang Christmas Carols at an assisted living home for senior citizens.  He is such a spaz!  He kept turning around and was so goofy!  He did a great job singing, when he wasn't so busy worrying about all of his friends and teachers!

The best smile I could get out of him...ugh!

My little singer!

Here's a little video - Ayden is in the middle in a khaki-colored shirt.  You can see how distracted he is, but also a pretty good singer.  The funniest thing is during the verses of "Angels We Have Heard on High," he was pretending to sing because he only knows the words of the chorus! :)

Thanksgiving

One of my family's holiday traditions is to make lefse the week before Thanksgiving. Lefse is a Norwegian flat bread made from potatoes. We all take turns rolling out the dough with rolling pins that have been in our family for years. Then, they are placed on a very hot grill and flipped using special "lefse sticks." It's so exciting to see Ayden participating in a family tradition that means so much to me...and he's really good at it too! :)

Ayden rolling out some dough with Uncle Matthew & Grandma

We went to my Grandparent's house for Thanksgiving where my grandma had transformed the garage into a dining room so that we could all sit together, rather than having to split up and eat at multiple tables, like we usually do.

What a cutie pie!! This was before Daddy took a little post-dinner snooze!Doing a little bowling on the wii!and a little game of scattergories

On Saturday, we had another great Thanksgiving Dinner at my dad's house with that side of the family...We were so busy eating delicious food and playing games that I didn't take any pictures!

November

I can't believe that November is almost over! I've been bad about taking pictures lately, but here are a few...

We took advantage of the after Halloween clearances to add to Ayden's costume box.
Helping Daddy make some yummy homemade bread!

Halloween Fun!

We had a fun Halloween!

Mummy Dogs for dinner! We tried out a couple of Superman poses!

Then we were all ready for trick-or-treating...

Candy Candy Candy!!!