Holiday Open House

Yikes! What a mess! What is going on here? Well, it was time again for our annual Holiday Open House!
Our entire congregation and some neighbors are invited to come over for an evening of fellowship and LOTS of food! This year I decided to try mostly all new recipes, and with a huge amount of help from Kaitlynn, we made the biggest mess in the kitchen yet getting ready for the party.
By 5pm that night, everything was clean and all the food was ready! Below are the strawberry brownie bites. They were really yummy!
Dee Dee's Delights. These are a yearly staple. Fun to make AND fun to eat!
Dana's Crock Pot Candy Clusters were new this year. Pretty easy to make and very tasty!
White and Dark Chocolate Oreo Truffles. Not to hard to make, but a really messy process!
Jewel Bark. If you like dark chocolate and dried fruits, this was an interesting taste.
The champagne and wine bar. Sam set up lights all around it on the stove and I thought the reflection in the glasses was really pretty.
Shrimp and salsa stuffed deviled eggs. I never tried them, but heard they were VERY tasty!
The hardest and most time consuming recipe of the year: Crab and wassabi Won Tons. Didn't try these either, but they sure disappeared quickly.
Taco Dip. Easy. Tasty.
My NEW favorite dip recipe! Leek and goat cheese hot dip. YUMMY!!!!
A new tangy punch recipe with the yearly frozen punch ring.
Fig and Brie cups. Were good, but were better when they were warm and the cheese was gooey.
Party Ryes. Didn't get eaten a lot this year. May put these on hold for the next few years.
Buffalo Chicken Dip. I did try it, but it was spicy!
Parmesan Cheese Rounds. REALLY tasty, but cooled off quickly. Was better when they were hot.
And the finished table!
We had exactly 50 people show up, if I didn't miss anyone in the counting. It was a fun night, ending with guitar playing, singing, and lots of talking and laughing and getting to know people better.
It was a great way to end 2009!

CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!

Collin - age 12 1/2


Kaitlynn - age 10 1/2


Christopher - age 7


Kaebrie - age 5

The above 4 pictures are the annual, traditional individual pictures taken for their Christmas books. It is fun (and a bit sad) to look back through those books and see how much they have changed and how fast they are growing up. Kaitlynn didn't pose for this one below, she was waiting for me to do something with the camera and I saw her looking at the tree and snapped it. I really like the glow and the reflection of the lights on the floor and the look on her face.
After that picture, Kaitlynn and I left for the Christmas Eve Communion Service. Kaebrie had a fever and ended up in the ER on Christmas day with a very bad UTI. So Collin stayed home with her so I could go to church. When we returned, we got into jammies and opened our ornaments (every child gets one each Christmas that symbolizes something that happened that year). Collin got a BELIZE ornament. Kaitlynn got a Minnie Mouse who was knitting ornament. Tiff got a soccer ornament. Kaebrie got a ballet ornament. And even Yazzi got an ornament - a golden retriever puppy in a stocking.

The rest of these pictures are a bit out of order, some were Christmas Eve some were Christmas morning.

Sam's mom let me have a letter she found that was written for Sam by his grandfather 31 years ago. I had it matted and framed. Sam had no recollection of that letter. It really touched him.

Kaebrie got a doll! She had wanted one really bad. She gave her a Christmas name and Holly has been by her side ever since.
So much so that she posed this picture and asked me to take Holly's official Christmas picture! :D
Tiff LOVED his art set!
Below is probably my favorite picture from Christmas Eve. Can you tell they are a bit exited about opening their Wii Fit?
I got a rotisserie!!! It also cooks, dehydrates, defrosts and more. Sam even had some chickens in the outside fridge waiting to be rotisseried! :D It was YUMMY!!!!
Then everyone had hot chocolate with marshmallows as I had planned for a movie night, but we all ended up playing the Wii Fit.
A VERY excited Tiffer who BEGGED for this and just knew what that square box was under the tree.
We have a traditional breakfast on Christmas morning, bacon (or sausage)
scrambled eggs, (but these were not edible and had to be thrown out)
and the favorite, CINNAMON ROLLS!
After breakfast we open stockings! Yazzi went first. Here she is winking at me , saying thank you for her new bone.
She LOVED it!
The kids have a computer site they love called Club Penguin. You can play for free, but members get to do extra special things. 3 of them got a one month membership card in their stockings. As you can see, Kaebrie is thrilled!
Also in her stocking: Silly Bandz! I so could have invented these rubber band shaped thingys.
Tiff wanted a certain Wii game, Lego Indiana Jones. He was happy to have unwrapped that!
We had almost convinced Collin that we were not able to get his special gift this year. He got a new strap from Kaebrie, there were picks and strings in his stocking, but we couldn't tease him any more...
He got a new guitar!
His favorite one, after playing many in 2 different stores. I LOVE that look on his face!
Kaitlynn is excited over a coupon she got from her JuJu! One week (or more) of time in Alabama with her grandparents ALONE. Like, without her siblings. She loved that idea, and so did everyone else!
There are a lot more pictures, but those tell the story the best. Of course the most important story was talked about all month with our Jesse Tree. The birth of Christ and what that meant for us.
Happy Birthday Jesus!

At the Hills

We made a lot of great friends in our years at Louisville. We still keep in close contact with many. One couple that meant a lot to us, was celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and wanted us to be there. We wanted to be there, so we went! We were able to all spend the night with the Hills, as they were going as well. Above, Sarah and I were dressed and ready WAY before the husbands were. How's that for different?
We took some pictures in front of their giant tree!

Sarah, sneaking some wedding cake! :D
Will and Sarah Hill. I photographed their wedding and Sam married them almost seven years ago. Will is the new Mayor of Louisville as well.
She asked me to take this one without telling him.
Their oldest daughter, Kellynn, is 11 months younger than Kaebrie and they are just the BEST of buddies. Both of then totally girly girls. We decided to let them sleep in the same bed together, but sleep wasn't what happened.
They giggled. They talked.
They laughed. Until 12:15 A.M. !!!! Kaebrie had never been up so late before.
This picture was taken at 12:20 a.m. They finally crashed. Shortly after, Sarah and I did too.
We thought they would sleep in a bit, but they were up and giggling and laughing at 6am!

It is fun to spend time with friends!