Christmas

Well, we had a great Christmas and New Year. We went over to my parents house Christmas Eve and had this wonderful Fishermans Chowder that my mom makes. We spent the night over there, which was fun for me. It was like I was a kid again. Mom, Mike, Ellis and I were up early (6:00am) and drank our coffee in peace and quiet. Our tradition is that we can open our stockings as soon as we wake up, but have to wait for the big gifts under the tree. Ellis opened his stocking gifts and it was a really nice to just get to spend some one-on-one time with him. He eventually went back to sleep around 7:30am. Opa and Kirsten finally woke up and beleive it or not, we were all waiting for her Highness to wake up. She normally wakes up at 7:00am and I'm pretty sure Mike finally woke her at 8:45am. She LOVED opening the presents and reaching into her stocking to see what was there. Then she reached into everyone elses stocking in an attempt to get everyones candy.

I made monkey bread as always, so we had breakfast and then finally all moved into the Living Room to open our presents. In the past we always took our time, with Dad distributing the gifts. We would wait and watch everyone open thier presents. It seemed to make Christmas last longer. Well, it doesn't work like that with a 2-yr old. Ellis was still sleeping, but Tessa was in present-opening mode. She just kept picking up gifts from under the tree (it didn't matter who they belonged too) and started to open. IN an effort to remove those said gifts from her grasp, they were quickly distributed to the proper recipients. Tessa of course go to help Mommy and Daddy open thier presents also. She loved all of her presents and had a blast. Later on when Ellis finally woke up,. she helped him unwrap his presents (and showed him how to play with this new toys).

Mike went up to see his older kids later that afternoon while we all just had a lazy Christmas Day. We managed to get both kids down for a nap at the same time. At some point it started snowing, so we actually had a White Christmas (1st time in Atlanta since '93 - which I don't remember). It was the big, beautiful, fluffy kind of snow.

For Christmas Dinner, mom made Lamb Chops that Dad grilled and this wonderful potato dish that you bake in the oven with bacon and onions (YUMMY in my tummy). It was really good and we drank some really good red wine with it. Mike made it back in one piece and we decided to stay one more night because of snow.

It was a perfect Chritsmas.