Back Home from a Wonderful Christmas!

This year for Christmas we drove to Oklahoma and spent it with my sister and her family and my parents. On our way down we stopped by to say Merry Christmas to Great Granny!

Christmas Eve~ the children thought they heard Santa

Getting excited about Santa

Santa definitely stopped by and left us some goodies!

Dylan got his electric scooter that he had been begging for.

Santa left Cass a gift card to NIKE ID which means she gets to design her own pair of Nike shoes and it will take 4-6 weeks for them to make her shoes just the way she wants them.

Opening stockings

Well, we had a little trash after Christmas!

One big disaster area

Cass and Dylan playing a new game called HEADBANDS.

Cass and Dylan got quite a surprise when they opened together an XBOX 360 and KINECT.

We had a wonderful Christmas! Thanks sister for letting us spend Christmas with you and your family. We took some family pictures which I should get this week and I will post them.

On the way home we stopped in Wichita and Uncle Robert and Aunt Janice took us out to lunch at Doc Greens. Thanks for lunch, it was delicious!

We finally made it home a couple of hours ago and Michael and Dylan started putting Dylan's popcorn machine together.

I hate spiders except for this one. Michael got mom and I each a spider podium for our iPads. I love it!

Cass unpacking her goodies!!

I even had time to run to the store and come home and make roasted garlic chicken pizza.

I forgot to post some recipes so here they are: Lemon blueberry coffee cake

Reeses stuffed oreos

Here is a list of other recipes I have tried in the last few weeks that I have enjoyed and I hope you enjoy them also:

1. Peppermint Patty Brownie Cups

2. Pot Roast Stroganoff

3. Macaroni and Cheese Lasagna

4. Million Dollar Spaghetti

5. Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes

Winter BBQ

My lovely friends Katie and Ann S. planned a winter BBQ at my house. Katie wanted to see her old friends from work so they thought a winter BBQ was a good idea. Michael smoked ribs and brisket and everyone else brought goodies to go along with the delicious meat.

I miss you Katie!! I am so glad we could see each other while you are home from Chicago!!

In the Christmas Spirit

Dylan is making sure people all around him are in the Christmas spirit. Every year he sets up his Christmas village and train and makes sure it looks alright so everyone can enjoy it.

Dylan has his own light display upstairs.

Every night Dylan wears an Elf hat and runs outside to pass out candy canes to everyone stopping by to enjoy our Christmas light show. Sometimes people give him a little donation and he saved all $47 and donated it to the Salvation Army.

Merry Christmas!!

Pitt State Gorillas

Today my friend Kelly came over and we watched Pittsburg State win the National Championship in football. We are so proud of our Gorillas!!!

We also enjoyed a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese and cinnamon crescent rolls.

(I made mine into large ones instead of the small crescent rolls so mine look silly but delicious)

Kelly also watched another great game but this time it was basketball instead of football. Dylan's team won and it was a close game. Thanks Kelly for going to Dylan's game also.

It was a great day in sports!!!

Winter Break is Finally Here!

Ann and I decided to start our winter break off right and take the guys out to dinner. We had outstanding food at MY BIG FAT GREEK RESTAURANT.

Flaming Cheese (Saganaki)

Dancing waiters

Delicious dessert(Loukamades-golden puffs of pastry with honey and vanilla ice cream)

Now two weeks off for winter break! YAY!!

Shopping Day 2011

Ann, Sheila and I had our annual Christmas shopping day yesterday. We have been doing this for many years and it started out as going out to dinner and then shopping. Well, we are much smarter now and we take the whole day off from work and shop till we drop. We have so many laughs throughout the day and this year Sheila singing like an elf while greeting people at Walmart and riding a donkey are probably some of the best memories ever.

7:30am

10:15pm

BEST DAY EVER!!!!!

We are the Griswolds of the Neighborhood!!

Yes, we are!! We have 23,200 twinkling lights and that is pretty close to Clark Griswold who had 25,000. If you have not seen the movie CHRISTMAS VACATION then you will not understand this but this also means you have to see the movie. It is the BEST Christmas movie ever!!!

Michael and I have t-shirts on that say "We are the Griswolds of the Neighborhood" and Cass and Dylan are wearing shirts that say "My dad is Clark Griswold. You should see our yard."

We only needed a few outlets!

Watching the light display on opening night!!

Hannah and Finley enjoying the lights

Garage party after the show

Nick and Nicole (me) :)

Michael is already planning next years light display! Hope everyone enjoyed the evening even though is was a little wet out.