Aunt Louise’s Cabin

We headed to Georgia for the day to celebrate Christmas with my family there. We spent the morning at my Aunt Louise’s cabin, it’s so pretty out there. B loves being able to run around and get dirty :)





I played with these in Photoshop a bit..


Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I apologize in advance, but this is going to be a long post. I took over 400 pictures in the last 3 days and I’ve tried to narrow them down.. it’s difficult when you have such an adorable subject though. (Adam – I’m talking about Braden here, not you!) :)

Apparently Braden was a VERY good boy this year, Santa came and brought so many wonderful goodies for him!


Santa seemed to like his cookies too, he sampled each of them!


We brought B down and as soon as he saw his train table, he got this adorable little grin..


As soon as his little feet hit the floor, he ran to it.. and hung out there for a good hour. We couldn’t get him interested in his other gifts at all, he just wanted to play with his choo-choo.


While we got ready to open gifts (meaning, getting the coffee going and the cinnamon rolls in the oven), my dad took pictures.. awww..


Then he said “show us how you really feel about each other”, and this is what we got. Yep, 4 years of marriage and we’re still totally nuts about each other.. or driving each other nuts.. I’m sure its one of those :)


Braden showed off his train table to his grandmothers and perfected his “choo-choo”!



He finally turned around and got a glimpse at the mountain of presents all with his name on them. Spoiled, much?


He enlisted Uncle D’s help in opening them..



And gave him a big hug to say thank you when he was finally finished..


B went off to eat breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa, while Daddy and his Uncles put together his toys.. or played with them.. probably a little of both.


He finished up his breakfast and made a bee-line for the GeoTrax train set. He’s been eyeing it in Toys ‘r Us for a few months and was SO excited when he opened it.



The cute little chair he is sitting in was a gift from me and Adam, though we gave it to him a bit early. Uncle D set up his tent and tunnel for him, and they tried it out.


Then decided to help make breakfast for everyone else. Such a big helper. :)


A little while later, my parents and brother headed home for a bit and Adam’s cousins showed up with their families. We tried to get a family picture, someone didn’t want to cooperate though :)


Colleen and Tegan worked on a gingerbread house, I think it turned out super cute!


And Buddy decided that he needed some attention..


My Dad and Adam worked on the turkey..


While Sandra and Colleen supervised..


Dinner is finally ready, and the boys are very proud of their handi work! They should be too, it was REALLY good!


I adore this picture, B loves his Uncle Allen :)


After dinner, Jonathan played the guitar for us. He’s quite the musician.


And one sleepy little boy tried to stay awake for the rest of the festivities. About 15 minutes after this was taken, he was in his pajamas and in bed, totally wiped out. He had a long, but wonderful day :)

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread Cookies

We make these every year for Christmas and decorate them on Christmas Eve! They are delicious and addicting!

Ingredients:

1 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. molasses
1 egg
4 c. sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg

Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Stir in molasses and egg.

Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg; blend into the molasses mixture until smooth.

Cover, and chill for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters.

Place cookies 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm. Let cool for 10 minutes on pan. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks. Frost or decorate when cool.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Braden’s school was closed today, so Adam and I took the day off to spend with him and to get ready for our Christmas visitors. B started off his day with a yummy breakfast.. although, it seems that he thinks its more fun to play with his yogurt, than to eat it.

Next, he was off to check out the tree, or “teee!” as he calls it. He has to check out his ornaments every morning and make sure they’re in just the right spot.

The green M&M seems to have moved, but while putting it back in its proper place, something on TV offended our sweet boy. His facial expressions crack me up.

Next, Mr. B decided that he was tired of listening to us go on and on about how yummy deep fried turkey is. He missed out on it last year, since he wasn’t quite eating solids yet, so he figured he’d get it started on his own. Such a big boy :)

I had a TON of baking to get done, we started off with what my friends and I lovingly refer to as crack. You get butter snap pretzels, stick a rolo on top, then pop them in the oven for 5 minutes (just enough to make the roly melty. Then top it with another pretzel. To be festive, I topped ours with red and green M&M’s instead of the pretzel. They were tasty, but the pretzel topper is much better :)

Next, we moved on to Gingerbread Cookies. YUM! I’ve never made these before, but they were really easy and SO good. Just remember to keep the dough super cold, I always forget that part.

Braden decided he had enough baking for the morning, so he and Daddy headed outside to play for a while.


I finished baking the cookies..

and got the Peppermint Brownies finished too. These were SOO incredibly yummy. They weren’t quite finished in the picture below, I still had to top them with homemade chocolate ganache. YUM!

After I pulled the last batch of goodies out of the oven, I peeked outside to check on Adam and Braden.. apparently pushing B on the swing is hard work :)

The boys came in, and I took a well-deserved snuggle break with my favorite little guy.

A bit later, we had some visitors arrive.. Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle D, Grandma Ruth and Uncle J.

We tucked Mr. B into bed and got to work, we had to help put together the goodies that Santa brought! The ladies finished up the cookies..

Grandpa and Daddy worked on Braden’s train table..

Uncle Justin put together his kitchen..

And Uncle D, well, he kept the couch from floating away.

We finished up the gingerbread cookies, I think they turned out cute.. most of them anyway :)

When we were all finished, we laid out cookies for Santa and were off to bed!

Well, most of us were anyway. Adam may or may not have taken a bite out of Santa’s cookies. He’s definitely on Santa’s naughty list!

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