December Recap

A recap of our December...


Around our house:












Our Christmas Bags:

Remember how B and I have exchanged our gifts to each other in brown bags for the last few years? (If not, you can revisit how that tradition got started here). Well, this year our brown bags got an upgrade, courtesy of my seester!


I had seen the idea for fabric Christmas bags here, at How Does She (an awesome blog that I love to stalk!), so I talked to my seester about making them (she has gotten really good at sewing cute bags) and she offered to make them for us!


We headed to the fabric store, picked out some cute fabrics, and got them done that evening after dinner. They turned out so cute and there was so much room for our presents (even the ones that were huge and bulky)!


Here, see for yourself....


Here's how she made them (with some pinning, turning, and cutting help from me!)...

Thanks Jenny, we LOVE them!




Christmas Eve with my fam....

Maddy...

Hudson...

Both of these cuties...

It was such a fun night! I can't believe I neglected to take pictures of the Phase 10 smackdown that I dealt out to my family! It's a good thing that my memory is like a steel trap and I will NEVER forget the first time I actually won that game!!!

Christmas Day with B's family...

This year my MIL was quite the tricky lady.



I know, I know, she looks all nice and sweet (and she really is), but let me tell you.... she has some wicked tricks up her sleeve!

Case in point, the gift card incident.

This year I thought I was crazy when I opened an old college textbook (make that a CRUSTY old college textbook!) called "The Physics of an Atom." I really thought to my self, "What the French, Toast!" I know I looked completely confused (believe me, I felt confused) and wasn't really sure what to say. I mean I wanted to be polite and all but I wasn't really sure how, it was a PHYSICS textbook, I have never done anything with PHYSICS!

Then, as I turned the book around for B to see the cover, low and behold, a gift card fell out and that nice MIL of mine started to laugh. I admit, it was pretty hilarious and clever too, so I figured I had better watch out for her!

Fast forward to the next surprise present - a jar of dried beans - and again, the total look of confusion. Seriously, how come I didn't learn my lesson from the first time? I was wondering what in the world I was going to do with a jar of dried beans (that wasn't even full) and I was shaking the jar at B, when all of a sudden, there appeared a gift card at the top of the beans.

I told you she had wicked tricks up her sleeve!

We all had a really good laugh but I vow never to look confused again - even if the gift is really, really weird!




And that is a recap of our December! Hope yours was great too!

We miss our family and friends that are far away and want you to know that we love you and think about you often. Here's to a terrific 2011 for all of us!