Christmas Morning Chaos

Once Paul and I became parents I sort of put my foot down in regards to where we would be spending Christmas. It was important to me that my kids have memories of waking up in their house and running into the living room to see what Santa had brought them. As a little girl I have great memories of running into my sister's room and us laying in her room trying to figure out what we could see from the hallway without actually going into the living room. Christmas morning was always at our own house then we would get dressed and go visit relatives. And to be quite honest the thought of hauling gifts somewhere and then hauling those plus more back doesn't interest me at all. Santa does not travel HWY 90 or I35. So, as long as everyone is healthy and able to come to our house.........Christmas will be here.


Tyson was up by 6:45, but says he peeked out of his room earlier and couldn't see anything so he waited till he saw lights. We had to open Em's door at 7:30 and she finally got up around 8.

he wishes he was taller than Daddy

This year Dad got in on the Christmas morning pajama action.........thus all of the plaid.

Em LOVED her new kitchen from Santa.......Paul didn't get the "pink" memo

Tyson picked out my Spurs hoodie.

Grandma got Emmy her own apron and chef's hat, complete with personalization....."Princess Emmy."

Loved that my parents could wake up Christmas morning with us, the kids love it too!!!

Mom and Dad even made breakfast for us while Paul and I were opening toy packages and inserting batteries (we have enough batteries in this house to power a mid size village).

Christmas Eve Festivities

Christmas Eve everyone gathered at my house. I LOVE playing hostess. We always seem to hang out in the kitchen most of the time. That's where the yummy snacks are and we can't forget the Christmas cocktails. This year we opened gifts too from Jenn and Chris. It was all we could do to get the kids down by 10.............they were so excited for Santa.





Poor Grandpa, there is just not enough of him to go around. Tyson has always had Grandpa ALL to himself......but that was before Emmy. She demands her equal time too. The look on Tyson's face says it all. "Why is Emmy sitting on your lap Gwampa?"

I always love the generation pics

For some reason they both felt the need to get in touch with their inner gangsta for this shot

I absolutely love this picture.......they both look so genuinely happy.

Jenn and I seem to take this picture every year in the kitchen, somehow Tyson made it in this year.

I love Paul for a lot of reasons. One of the biggest reasons is that he knows being around family during the holidays is very important to me and he makes sure that happens.


We ended the night with Tyson and Em sprinkling "reindeer dust" on the yard so Santa could find the house.

Can't forget Santa's treat and 1 carrot for Rudolph

Seeing RED

Every year I seem to always bake the same type of Christmas cookies.......so this year I decided to try a few new ones. And I am so happy I did.

I have always loved cookies with jam in the center. These little beauties are so pretty but so TASTY!!!! These is something about the color red that just says Merry Christmas!!!!

Cherries in the middle and krispies on the outside, DELISH!!!!!

plates for the neighbors

Feliz Navidad

Pan de Polvo, Reposteria, or aka Mexican Wedding Cookies

When I was growing up it wasn't Christmas until Mom made these wonderful, flaky, melt in your mouth cookies. Once I was old enough to help I assisted. And of course, once I had my own kitchen I began making them too. I have made them by myself for the last 6 years and I have even shared the experience with a couple of my girlfriends. This is some what of a family tradition, and I am proud to continue it. My parents are coming on Thursday and I had to have these ready for Dad.



I realize that the late Dr. Atkins is probably rolling over in his grave right now at the sight of these ingredients. Yes, that would be lard and 9 cups of white flour (sifted 4 times....I'm just sayin). But it's the holidays and I don't cook with these everyday. You could use shortening or butter but the taste would not be the same.



This picture makes me so proud.........this was my job as a little girl when I helped Mom. I used to love gently covering the hot cookies with a cinnamon and sugar mixture. Tyson seemed to like helping too; however, after the 4th dozen he asked if he could go outside and look for worms. Clearly my Mexican family tradition couldn't hold water to grub hunting.

Hello little guys, Merry Christmas!!!!

This is not a difficult recipe it is just a little involved. It is definitely meant to be a shared activity......the more hands the better. You should get over 7 to 8 dozen from one batch. I will gladly forward the recipe if anyone is interested.

"Chugga Chugga Choo Choo"

Tyson often comes home from school and recreates whatever they did that day in his class. Well on Friday they watched "Polar Express" in their jammies and put their chairs in a line to resemble a train. So Friday night after we all changed into our jammies Tyson lined up the little pink chairs, handed out tickets and even grabbed my hole punch (you know...to punch the ticket). Too bad there wasn't a way to get a snapshot of all four of us sitting in the super tiny pink chairs riding Tyson's Polar Express because Paul and I also went for a ride.

This time Emmy was the conductor..........note the conductor hat.

Your Mission If You Choose to Accept.....

As room mom I have two main responsilbilites: Plan and pull off a successful Winter Party and plan a fun and exciting end of the year party. That's it. Just two things. Sounded easy enough when I attended the "room mom to be" meeting.

Tyson and Kennedy opening their gifts

Tyson loved the cookie decorating station

time out for the snack station

making gingerbread ornaments at the "craft" station

The kids were so surprised they got to open a gift

"Run Run As Fast as You Can......."

Tyson's class had their Christmas play "the Gingerbread Man" on Thursday. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen (well......since last year's pre k play). There is nothing sweeter than listening to 20 kindergarten kiddos singing at the top of their lungs "this is the tale of the gingerbread man, the gingerbread man.......oh how that cookie can run........." Tyson was a bear. A bear that was trying to catch the run away gingerbread man. He was nervous at first but once the play got going he seemed to really enjoy himself.

I'm not sure if this picture was taken before or after he had the biggest yawn ever on stage

Noah, Jackson and Tyson as bears

Tyson on the mic

chasing the gingerbread man

I was so glad Paul was able to see the play

The Cast

"Merry Kismas"

Emmy has a plethora of Christmas attire, thanks to one of my girlfriends who has a little girl exactly one year older and another friend with a well dressed little 5 year old. I love couture hand me downs. And of course I may have purchased an outfit or two....or three, who's counting.

"Mommy, Emmy like her Kismas dress and Kismas bow. Take Emmy picture."

YES! All of my hard work and endless camera time has paid off, she actually wants to be photographed.

Christmas Time Outside of City Limits

Saturday afternoon we were home just relaxing.......since both the kids had Pink Eye and we really couldn't take them anywhere. Then we heard sirens and more sirens. Nobody panicked since we do live about a mile and half from the volunteer fire department and often hear the sound. Then we went outside, cause we're nosy that way and to our surprise this is what we saw............

it was Santa.......on top of the volunteer fire truck

( I'm not bitter but the one time we actually needed the volunteer fire department the response time was 22 minutes, did I mention we live a mile and a half away form the volunteer fire station?)

Santa was passing out candy........it was like Halloween meets Christmas
My little oozing eye kid sure perked up!

Christmas Card Pics of the Past

Every November the big Christmas Card picture debacle begins. What do they wear? Where do I take the picture? Color or black and white??? As I begin to print out my labels for this years Christmas cards I thought I would take a walk down Christmas Card picture memory lane. Some made the cut.....some did not.

This one was in the running for this year.......till I found a better one

I liked this one too.......except for the fact that Tyson looked so TALL

this one was the runner up from last year

Christmas Card picture 2008

2007 (man oh man....Emmy was such a butterball)

2007 runner up

Merry Christmas 2006 (look how little Tyson is)

The ones before '06 were purchased at the portrait studio.