Christmas with the G-Fam...

...Matt always said that once we had kids, we'd host Christmas morning at our house. Last year was the first year we did and I let him be in charge of cooking. It was, um, how do I put it nicely...not good. He told everyone to be at our house at 9, but didn't feed them until 10:30 and it wasn't that great (he'll even admit it). We're lucky his family didn't revolt because we were all starving by the time he put the food on the table.

This year, I said I was in charge of cooking and we'd eat as soon as everyone arrived. We had to be at his aunt's at noon so the immediate G-Fam arrived at our house at 8am. Matt's mom brought the milk and juice, but I did the cooking for all eight of us. My menu included: strawberries & bananas, Costco muffins (I was going to make them, but ran out of time), bacon, sausage and a crockpot breakfast scramble.

When I started browning the sausage for the breakfast scramble, Matt began adding garlic. I *patiently* told him that he was always heavy-handed on the garlic and that he'd better not mess up the meal I'd been planning for three months. He tried to argue with me, but then in the Christmas spirit, he agreed that I was right and backed off. I mixed up the fixin's, put it in the fridge and set my alarm to wake me at midnight so I could turn on the crockpot.

A little before 6am, we heard AR kickin' the side of her crib. She'll lay on her back and face the side just kicking her feet away. I rolled over and said to Matt that I guessed someone was ready to see if Santa came. We all headed into the living room and what do you know, Santa had stopped at our house!

We opened our stockings first which consisted of a dollar coin for good wealth, an apple and orange for good wealth, an ornament and some small "toy." AR was immediately distracted by the orange so she had to eat hers before we could open any more presents.

I had Matt's big present shipped to my sister's so he'll be getting it tomorrow so I'll reveal then. Matt and my dad went together and got an automatic starter for my Tahoe-woohoo! He also got me two tickets to an Ambush game in February. They are a local indoor soccer team who I used to LOVE when I was in elementary/middle school. All my soccer teammates and I would go to games and we even played on the field before one of their games. I now work with one of the guys who used to play back in the day and I was star struck when I first met him, but now we're 'ole buddies chatting every Saturday during soccer season. This guy was actually the first person I told about AR winning the Diaper Derby even before Matt!

Matt always waits until the last minute to get my gift and then he's asking me every day what I want. I had "liked" the Ambush on Facebook and he commented on it, half-mocking me. I told him, heck yeah I like them and that he should use it as a hint and get me tickets. I totally forgot about it until I opened my present this morning-sometimes he does listen! After I opened them, I made the comment that we should see if my Dad wanted to come to which Matt jumped on and said that it was totally fine if I wanted to take my Dad instead of him. Sports, especially not soccer, isn't really his thing. I called my dad and hopefully, he'll be able to make it!

AR didn't get a whole lot from Santa at our house because "he" knew that the grandparents were getting her a lot. She got a t-ball set from Daddy, a interactive "walker" from me (but I'm going to leave the walker part off so it's more like an interactive lap thing), books, stamps, stamps and more stamps! AR and Daddy checking out her new toy.

Daddy found Ms. Monkey her very own ornament! I told AR to kiss the monkeys and she made them kiss each other-adorable! Good job, Daddy.

The scramble was done by the time we woke up so I just had to cook up the bacon and sausage. I made the bacon in the oven and fried the sausage while I worked on the fruit. The idea was to use the strawberries and bananas to make candy canes. As you can see, mine turned into a heart.

Everyone was scheduled to arrive at 8am. At 7:45 am, I had three pieces of bacon left to fry and I had to change clothes. All except Matt's parents had arrived by 8am. AR couldn't wait any longer, she was "starving!"

Matt's parents arrived and we ate on time-woohoo! After breakfast, we started opening presents. His dad got us earplugs to go along with the drum filled with instruments he got AR. Funny thing, Matt only got one earplug!

Did I mention that all her gifts came wrapped in a huge box full of peanuts that she dove into and played around in? She loved it, can you tell by the look on her face?

After they left, we quickly cleaned up, changed outfits and headed to Matt's aunt. I couldn't ever get a great pic, but she made each of us, sixteen!, our very own personalized place setting. Check it out! I absolutely love it!

She lives in an older, historic house with high ceilings. AR loved it because that meant that Daddy could throw her up SUPER high!

She got MORE presents here. Great Grandma knew exactly what to get her-a baby doll! As soon as she opened it, she took it to the rocking chair to rock her then laid her on the couch to nap and AR laid down with her.

Aunt Jan has two dogs that AR went crazy for the whole afternoon. AR would walk up to the bigger dog and pat her. As she got more comfortable with her, she'd given her hugs, too. This dog was just her size so AR and Karma hung out under the table together.

Aunt Jan also has chicken and geese so her and Daddy had to go inspect them.

This girl sure loves her grandmas! Here she is with her Grandma Star. Oh, we also did an ornament exchange and AR loved the ornament she got which she is holding. It had snowmen on it and opened and closed. She loved it until she tripped and it broke. :-( Daddy said he would fix it and luckily, Aunt Jan had another one she could have. I think her ornament collection tripled this year!

And finally, as we were about to leave, I remembered to ask someone to take a picture of the G-Fam before Christmas was over!

 

Whew! What a long day and we still have two more celebrations with more family! I hope everyone had a fun-filled, safe Christmas filled with happiness, family, and the celebration of Baby Jesus' birth. Happy birthday, Jesus!