Cookie Time

Every Christmas season for quite a few years a group of us girls will get together for a cookie exchange. One year we baked all the cookies together and other years we’ve done the baking solo and just gathered for some quality time together while leaving with a car full of cookies…really it is a lot of cookies especially when you have a sister who attends the same exchange. We share the same family so have one less family to “force” to eat cookies. Don’t worry they don’t ever go to waste…I do enjoy cookies very much. Well this year the week before we had our exchange, Troy got a craving for cookies. And not just any cookies. He wanted the pudding cookies his mom would make that has been a favorite of ours. He loves the chocolate pudding with chocolate chips cookies and I love the oreo pudding with m&m’s. In a weak moment at the grocery store I said fine let’s make them and got stuff for both batches. I figured it would be a fun thing to do with the kids. We spent one Saturday morning as a family making cookies. And no it wasn’t just me and the kids, Troy helped the entire time. It was a fun morning for sure.

And you know what, all the cookies got ate….plus the Christmas cookies we received the next weekend. I told you I love cookies!

Christmas Happenings 2015

With two kids fully aware of how a calendar works and able to countdown the days till Christmas, we were definitely excited for December 24th to be here. We had a relaxing morning/afternoon until it was time for supper. Long gone is the prime rib tradition but we certainly aren’t starving. I think we all agreed this year was one of the best food wise. For Christmas eve we had smoked ham and it turned out amazing! I think the best ham I’ve eaten and it wasn’t an expensive ham at all ($8.46 for a big ham). Troy did great! Since we’re talking food the next day we dined on Zuppa Toscana soup Carissa made for the second year. We didn’t foget the mimosas but saved room for smoked ribs. The soup again was a big hit. And the ribs….sooooo good. Troy loves to treat anyone and everyone to smoked ribs. Seriously you should hear how many times he says I can smoke some ribs or really any smoked meat. It is definitely a hobby I can enjoy him taking on. Food wise I think we might have actually landed on true traditions we would like every year. But then again we love all sorts of food so who really knows what next year will bring.

Back to Christmas Eve….after filling our bellies it was time for presents. This year was the best yet timing wise since we were done eating early enough to have the kids open their gifts and have plenty of time to play. Grandma Appeldorn joined us Christmas Eve so the kids had lots to open and looked very spoiled. But they were so thankful for everything they received and it was a fun night watching them enjoy all the new toys.

Once the kids were tucked into bed, it was time for Santa to pay a visit to our house. After a good night’s sleep we had some excited kiddos to dive into opening Santa’s gifts to them. Well two of the three were excited. Brynna yet again this year wanted more time to sleep and by 8:00 we figured she better get up or the other two would go crazy. So she took a little time to wake up and get fully into it. I think she wasn’t quite sure what was going on at first. But once she saw what she got from Santa she was very happy. All the kids really loved what Santa brought.

It was then time to pack up our stuff and headed over to the Zimmer’s for the rest of Christmas Day. The kids had more gifts to open and had lots of fun running wild all day. Brody wasn’t too excited about more gifts or maybe it was the pictures.

For the third year we also welcomed the Rotell’s over for the fun. Even though their son baby Jax is quite a bit younger the kids absolutely love him. So nice to see them all enjoy their time together. We actually spent the next day together as well. It was a glorious! We spent all day watching Christmas movies until the end of the day we just watched some random movies. I don’t know if I have ever had a day like that. It was so relaxing! Of course we still had to tend to the kids but a day of just relaxing hunkered down at home was a very nice thing.

That completes our Christmas events or the ones we had in December. I finished this post just in time for our final celebration with my family this weekend. Hopefully all our friends and family had a great holiday season. As you can see not much changes around here from year to year but we still manage to be thankful for all the fun times we share together.