A Christmas to Remember

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! Our celebration began when my Dad and Polly arrived on Christmas Eve around 1 p.m. We enjoyed some snacks and relaxed and visited for a few hours before going to Macaroni Grill for an early dinner. Last year we took the kids ice skating at the outdoor rink in Old Town. We had so much fun that we decided to make it a new tradition. So, after dinner we headed over to the rink and rented skates for the kids. They had a great time ice skating! It was really fun to watch them out there having such a great time together.

Christmas morning activities began around 9 with Dad and Polly arriving for breakfast and gifts. (they stay in a nearby hotel) I made my Mom's breakfast casserole and orange sticky buns for breakfast. After we ate, we watched the kids (and Kate's dog Lily) open their stockings. Having Lily here for the past week has been so fun! She is such a sweet dog and remarkably I've done fine with my allergies and so has Kyle (thanks to Claritin!) Next up was gift opening and as is our tradition we choose someone to be "Santa" and pass out a gift to each person and then we take turns opening our gifts so we can all see what each other received. We were certainly blessed this year to be able to give and receive some wonderful gifts.

As is also a tradition for us at Christmas, we get dressed after gift opening and go to the movies. We've been doing this for about 6-7 years now. Dad and Polly love to go to the movies as well, so they were happy to go with us. After the movies we went back to the house where Polly and I worked together to prepare Christmas dinner. Dad and Polly were very thoughtful to buy us a Honey Baked Ham to serve for dinner. Along with the ham the menu consisted of a cheesy potato casserole, fresh green beans with pecans and lemon, spinach and fruit salad with poppy seed dressing and rolls. For desert I had prepared in advance a grasshopper pie. (another tradition!)

After lingering over a wonderful meal and visiting more, the day finally came to an end. Polly and Dad returned to their hotel room around 9 and then the rest of us popped in one of Kate's gifts (the movie Dispicable Me) which is a darling animated movie that Kate asked for to add to her movie collection. All to soon, our wonderful Christmas day had come to an end. We had such a wonderful Christmas this year! Below are pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.