A Bundle from Christmas Past

This is a Massive Post but there are so many good festive moments from these last two weeks that I can't help but share them.  

So do you remember that list of cookies that I was making my last post?... We made them. But guess who's cookies turned out best.. the hubz.. For some reason, I thought I'd go healthy this year and put some wheat flower in my m&m cookies and crinkles, worst idea ever. They were dry and yucky and I almost felt guilty as we passed them out to some of the close friends, who were hopefully close enough to understand. : ) The rest of them got put in time out in our freezer. bad cookies. 

But despite the disappointing product, the process was rewarding. 

  

Pre-Chrismas. 

This is a special year. Not only is the first year for Ry and I, but my brother and his wife, Sarah, are also having their first Christmas together... and to top it my parents and sister who are usually in Thailand are here for the year, sooo a triple-wamy! 

So before he headed down to San Diego into the Christmas celebratory chaos we decided to do our own little celebration and exchange of gifts. 

Not only did Ry and I get each other CD's for Christmas but  we also got each other onesies! Same Same! It's kind of scary how much we think alike. We had fun opening up gifts from his parents who live in Thailand too.
One of my fav's is this awesome outfit his dad got us when he was traveling to Bangladesh. Super festive! I need to figure out how to wear it in this cold weather.. maybe boots?

San Diego. 
It was a long trip down to San Diego. It was a total of 14 hours including a dinner stop with our good friend Sylvia in L.A. which served as a nice break from rainy traffic. From the combination of Bethany, my sister, watching toy story 3 and from listening to the beginning of the audiotape of "The Shack", I ended the trip feeling nauseous from motion sickness and depressed from the book. But we made it, even through the record-breaking downpour of san diego skies. 
Unfortunately the rain persisted for two more days which made for some soggy-shoed errands and lots of lazing around. But then, once we decorated my grandpa's house and once festivities began the clouds lifted never to come back again! 

A few days before Christmas, our good friends, the Ohs, came to visit us from LA which always is a treat. We got to make a plethora of Christmas cookies, hear their impromptu jazz band and watched Charlie Brown Christmas. 

Our Day: Thursday
Each couple was assigned a day to do the meals. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Thursday was assigned to the Fitzstevens. For breakfast we made crepes with berries, home-whipped whip cream, lemon, powdered sugar and lots of other lovely additions. 
Lunch was carbonara which came with the fun history of Ryan eating at our house in Thailand when he was in 5th grade, getting sick, upchucking, and then shooting a noodle out his nose. We made sure to remind the family of this during the meal. : )
Dinner was a thai combo of panang curry and a coconut soup called thom ka and chinese chicken salad.. mmm. 

The Stockings were hung.. 
Everyone was also put in charge of an activity. Mine was the craft: Making Stockings. While watching Christmas programs on TV we snipped and glue-gunned away all putting our own personal touch to our stocking..

 Christmas Day

 Christmas morning was a beautiful sunshiney day and the two little elves jumped out of their sleeping bags prepared for a great day of celebration! "For unto you a child is born!"

 Brunch.
brunch means that we get to sleep in past normal breakfast hours... brunch also means that we get to snack until dinner... and we had d-lish snacks..

 We had gingerbread pancakes for brunch as well which were way more tasty that I had imagined and very filling too. 

Number 1. on our agenda for Christmas morning was family pictures. We have a reputation of taking very loong photoshoots as a family so we hopefully got our best and worst smiles on and went for it. Here are some of my fav's: 

Three generations of Groot!

 2. we spent some time reading the Christmas story together.. remembering why we celebrate this time of year and that it's not about the gifts or the food or even the cute stockings we made... how it's about the humble magnificent birth of our Savior.. It really is so amazing..

 3. Gingerbread House Competition
We spent a lot of the afternoon playing games, opening gifts, and competing against each other in a Gingerbread House competition. 

 Team One Even Made a little Manger with Mary and Joseph made out of Gumdrops and Jesus wrapped in a swaddling starburst wrapper.

 Team 2's theme was the Hansel and Gretel Inn, complete with the witch's legs sticking out of the chimney and popcorn snow falling from the sky.. we were pretty proud and won by a mere few points. 

We wrapped up the day with a fantastic meal that mom made while we were laboring over our gingerbread houses.. what a day. 

This will definitely be a memorable first Christmas as Mrs.Fitz.. Thanks Fam. : )