Happy Holiday - The Day After Christmas

Well it's the day after and we're still alive! I'm so glad it's all over. Now I'm interested in cleaning up the messes and looking at my clean house. You'd never know that the housekeepers were here on Christmas Eve Day.

Christmas Eve Day was rushing around to get the house clean for the housekeepers and then out to get the holiday dinner that we ordered since we wouldn't have enough time to make everything with the housekeepers here. This is when the fun began. We got to the Honey Baked Ham store only to find that the side dishes we reserved weren't reserved at all. :( Milenko rushed to the grocery store to get the fixin's for the new stuff we had to make while I went home to feed Brayden & put Lauren to bed. Lauren had been sick all night long and running a fever.

Fortunately, it was gone by the afternoon and didn't last into the night at all.

Grammy got here around 4:30 with Dan arriving shortly after. Dave, Michelle & the boys arrived around 5pm and we all had a great time. We had 1/4 ham, 1/2 turkey, mashed potatoes, garlic sauteed green beans, salad, lightly grilled pugliese bread with drizzled olive oil and a splash of garlish & candied yams. Even the kids ate a decent amount. We had the kids sit in the kitchen at the smaller table while all the adults sat at the formal dining room table. It was such a nice change to NOT have to get up and deal with rioting kids.

The tree was completely filled with presents. It looked like we had a few dozen people getting gifts.

After Dave's family went home, it was time to write letters to Santa. Daddy helped Bella write her letter all by herself while Lexie dictated to me. We took the letters and put them next to the cookies (made with Teta Sherry) and hot cocoa (because it's warm & yummy and Santa likes it better). Oh yeah, we had to ad a napkin in case Santa got his beard dirty.

Uncle Momo (my brother Dan) & Grammy spent the night. While Milenko passed out, Elf Dan put together the Barbie Escalade from Santa. By 1am, we were exhausted and put the wagon (still inside its box) on a footstool with a name tag.

I was so tired come 7:30 that I didn't get to capture their look on camera when they saw what Santa brought. However, I think the excitement lasted all day. The Escalade has a real working radio & cup holders. We haven't put the battery in yet since it has to charge for 18 hours. I'm wondering if the battery is even needed as they find that thing so much fun without it.

At 10am, our neighbor Meena joined us for homemade waffles and mimosas, courtesy Chef Milenko.

At 2pm we headed to Kum & Kuma's (Milenko's godparents) house for dinner. We had the best homemade soup ever. I can't remember the Croatian name for it (let alone spell it), but it was so good! Follow that up with bread, green beans, potatoes, roasted pig, sauerkraut, salad, cauliflower, stuffing and turkey with gravy. That was dinner. Dessert was even more food than dinner. We brought an apple pie to add to the strudel, 3 plates of Croatian cookies, chocolate/raspberry cake, fresh strawberries with cream and a Croatian dessert break that Kum always makes. WOW! There was so much food that I think I've personally eaten for the week. (That's not including the appetizers before dinner of shrimp, proscuitto, crackers, cheese, olives, dips and some spicy sausage that I'm clueless about.) If ever you want a good meal, Kuma will certainly do you justice is preparing a wonderful spread!

The best part was when Kum pulled out the guitar and accordion. Lexie loves music and after she finished her dessert, she delighted us by singing We Wish You A Merry Christmas, You Are My Sunshine and her ABC's. She became disinterested when Kum couldn't play any of the "Anna Montanana" (Hannah Montana) songs.

Had to throw in a quick picture of Brayden as he dressed up for Christmas dinner!

We all went to bed around 8pm. Lauren was still a little under the weather, Brayden has developed a very bad cough and I can't swallow anything. (Wouldn't that have come in handy while the desserts were flowing this season?!) :-)

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Ho Ho Ho! (Hack Hack)

Happy Holidays - if you're not under the weather like a few of us in our household. :) This time of year is always fun. We decorate the house inside and out, get to shop a lot and get to pull out the winter clothes. This year we had the tree up 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. (Hey, it was never put away from the last time we took it out so there was a purpose to finally get it out of the garage!)

We did our family Christmas pictures just before Thanksgiving and even had Brayden's birth announcements done. Although everything was ready to go, we didn't get out cards until the 5th of December. Boy, it sure does take a lot of time to do these things when you have a large family. In case I forgot to send you a card, please don't take it personal. I can't remember if I kissed my husband good-bye this morning for work, I don't remember if I even used the bathroom today. I think I may have remembered breakfast this morning and I'm sure that I called Lauren by Lexie's name, Bella by Lauren's name and possibly Lexie by Brayden's name. My brain is fried and I haven't ever touched a drug before! How do the people with 10 kids do it??

We chose this picture above because all eyes were open and Lauren looked so cute. Lexie could have used a bigger smile but she makes up for it in the picture below.

Now you tell me.... How often can you get 4 kids to look at the camera? Well, at least 3 of them anyways. We were just so excited that they all smiled. We'll give Brayden another year before he's required to show us any teeth. He's getting away with it this year since he doesn't have any teeth yet. ;-)

For Bella's birthday, Donna & Alyssa got her a scooter. She has been practicing outside on the semi-warm days. She loves the thing so much. She'll be ready for a real one by the time the weather gets warmer again. The one she has right now is just a training scooter.

Lexie is also enjoying her outdoor play. She's such a ham. When I tell her to smile for the camera she cocks her head to the side and puts her hand on her face. What a total shmoozer!

Lauren is the biggest outdoor kid of all our children. It doesn't matter if she has shoes & socks on, if she's in pj's or if she's in a diaper. She'll go outside as much as possible if the door is open.

When I get a free chance, I'll scan in Bella & Lexie's school photos and post those. They both turned out so good. I'm hoping to do that before the school year end at the rate I'm accomplishing things. hahahaha

What's going on with us in December? Well, Milenko is healing from his vasectomy. It's taking a little longer than normal since diabetics have a longer recovery time. He's "hanging" in there though. (pun intended) Good news - no more ooops! for us. hee hee

We have a few get-togethers with friends for the holidays but mostly staying at home. As always, we'll have Christmas Eve with the Gardner side of the family and all the cousins, etc. here at our place. We've been doing that for 8 years now. It's always so much fun. For Christmas, we're headed to Dan & Anita's (Kum & Kuma), Milenko's godparents, for dinner. We'll stop by his parents (who live 3 doors down) for a little while before heading over there and will hopefully be home early and off the roads before the Holiday drivers come out.

We had to throw in the photo of Biscuit with Brayden. I had just come home from the store and was unloading all the groceries in the house. I left Brayden outside since he was asleep and it was nice and warm in the sun. While I was busy putting things away, Biscuit went up to Brayden's car seat and started "making biscuits" on the end of the fleece blanket on his feet. She grabs the corner of the blanket and sucks on it and kneeds the blanket like