Christmas Kirkland Style

Yes, you are reading this right.  Christmas in San Jose on December 25th and poof! Kirkland on December 26th!  We are some crazy travelers!  We are so happy to be up here with my family celebrating Christmas a day late but with some serious excitement!  The kids were thrilled to celebrate Christmas once again!

The kids were so excited to give Nonna and Grandpa their Christmas presents!  Grandpa was beyond surprised to open up a new coffee mug that fits 90 ounces of liquid!  Earlier in the year, Grandpa accidentally let himself into the wrong hotel room on a trip to Wine Country and woke up a stranger by saying to what he thought was my Mom, "I got the Cachi!"  It is quite the favorite story to all four of my kids hence his newly personalized mug!  Grandpa is also guilty of sharing his coffee with my kids (okay, with my girls).  He loved it and it got quite the laugh!

Nonna and Grandpa spoiled the kids with some great new outfits and gifts.  My kids sure are lucky to have such amazing grandparents!  We are so looking forward to hanging out with the whole family this week!

Christmas Dinner 2012

And the fun continues!  Mark and Jocelyn graciously hosted Damien's family this evening for a wonderful turkey feast!  The house looked beautiful, the food was divine, and the company was perfect.  We had a nice leisurely dinner and enjoyed the last few hours of Christmas.

One of the highlights for me and Damien was giving Mark and Marlene a prank gift box.  It was a bathe and brew box which promised to brew your coffee/tea while you shower.  We had them going for a few minutes and it was awesome.

The cousins had a great night running around the house and laughing!  We did find Catie and Emily in the upstairs bathroom unsupervised.  Let's just say that their Christmas dresses were drenched with soapy bubbly water that was forming two foot tall bubbly mountains in the sink!  Whoops.

It was a great night.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Morning

This year, Damien and I outdid ourselves.  We are brilliant.  Simply brilliant.  We came up with an idea to set the clocks back an hour with the hopes that the kids would sleep in a little bit this morning!  We had set a rule that no one gets out of bed until 7:00 a.m. and wouldn't you know it  . . . they listened to us?

All four kids tip toed into our room to rouse us from our sleep.  Together, we got to watch them all walk into the front room to see what Santa had delivered!  I absolutely love my kids.  It brings me such joy to see them believe in something so wonderful.  I love seeing them with wonder in their eyes and gratefulness in their hearts.

They all ran in and saw the one thing that they wanted the very most!  Michael got an iPod Touch, a new basketball, a Halo poster, an iTunes gift card, a new iPod Touch case, and lots of goodies in his stocking.  He was really excited but was a bit upset because he was hoping for the video game Halo which I think Santa thought was a bit too violent for such a sweet boy.

Claire also got an iPod Touch, a new basketball, a Hunger Games poster, an iTunes gift card, a new iPod Touch case, a Blingo kit (to bling out anything you want) and some Mad Libs.

Matthew really wanted Skylander Giants and Santa sure delivered!  He also got Electronic Monopoly, Pop the Pig, a Mario poster, and a Nintendo 3DS!  He was beside himself when he saw the red 3DS!

Emily walked in the room in the morning and immediately saw the much hoped for Slurpee Maker!  She also got a DreamLite, a Minnie Mouse, a Water Doodle, a King Mouse snowglobe, and a poster of kitties wearing headphones.  She also got some Minnie Mouse high heels which she put on and then performed a song from the Nutcracker.  Hilarious.

We had a wonderful morning.  Everyone was very happy and grateful for everything that Santa brought them.  Before we knew it, all the kids had run off with their new treasures and Damien and I had some precious quiet moments alone next to the glow of the tree.

As we sat there- I glanced to the left and saw my very favorite Christmas gift.  Emily had written 'Mom' on her new Aqua Doodle.  It warmed my heart.  I love my family and hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas morning!

And in case you were wondering- Santa did eat all of the cookies (even the broken one) and took the cheese to give to his friend the King Mouse!

We Mustache You A Question . . .

Are you having a Merry Christmas?

Christmas Eve 2012

The is excitement in the air!  Santa is almost here!  The kids can't believe that after a long year of waiting, Christmas is tomorrow!!!  We started the day with a fun surprise.  I had to run over this morning to Jocelyn's house to bring over the cute place cards I made for tomorrow night's dinner as well as drop off some tables, table cloths, etc.  I noticed her to do list and asked if it would help if I brought Brennan and Gabe over to my house for a few hours.  With her approval, I put them in my car and brought them back to my house.

When they walked in the room, all of my kids went crazy!  They loved the surprise of it all!  The cousins hung out for a while and we ended the day with lunch at Pizza My Heart.  Because when I think of Christmas Eve day, I think of pizza!  

Once we finished with the cousins, we got the kids in their dressy clothes and headed up to Walnut Creek to have Christmas Eve dinner with Damien's family at Aunt Erin's house!  We went to mass beforehand at a beautiful church in town and then enjoyed a wonderful night with Damien's extended family!  

After the dinner, we drove the hour ride home and got the kids in their Christmas pajamas.  We then started to get the plate of cookies ready for Santa.  Let the Christmas arguing commence!  Who was going to pick the cookies for the plate?  Who was going to walk the plate out?  Who got to pick out the carrots and then who puts it on the plate?  Nonfat or 2% milk for Santa?  What glass?  Who brings it out?  I am serious that it was a difficult twenty minutes of me trying to keep my cool.  

And when I finally negotiated a solution, Emily dropped the chosen mint cookie off the plate and it broke in half.  Tears.  Lots of tears from three out of four kids.  "Santa won't want a broken cookie and that was the only cookie that we all agreed on!  Waaaaaaaaaaaa!"  Michael rolled his eyes and cooly said, "I would eat a broken cookie."  And that was that.  Michael convinced them that Santa would indeed eat the broken cookie!  Hooray!  

It is also important to note that Emily wanted to put string cheese on the plate in case the King Mouse was with Santa.  I mean, seriously. 

Before you knew it . . .

Twas the night before Christmas,

And all through the house.

Not a parent was resting,

Not even Emily's King Mouse.

The stockings were hung,

Above the much cursed cookie plate.

With the hopes that Santa didn't turn around,

After hearing my kids argue in haste.

All four kids were nestled,

all tucked into their beds,

With dried tears and visions of broken cookies,

dancing in their heads.  

With Dad eating cookies, 

and Mom stress eating ice cream,

Merry Christmas to all,

And to all some sweet dreams!

Christmas Cookie Bake Off!

I have been wanting to bake Christmas cookies for the last several years and just have not had the chance.  Call it poor planning, call it being overwhelmed by the season, call it lack of motivation- I just didn't get it done.  But this year, however- I planned ahead and set aside a whole afternoon to bake!

Claire saw me setting up and begged me to let her help me bake.  And then there were two bakers!  Emily noticed we were baking and she made it three!  The boys just asked when the cookies would be ready and if we had nonfat milk in the house.  To their credit, they did put some sprinkles on the spritz cookies.

We attacked one kind of cookie at a time until we were all finished!  A short six hours later and we had made Chocolate Dipped Biscotti, Spritz Cookies, Peanut Butter Blossoms, and Chocolate Snow Drops (which Damien wants me to rename Reindeer Droppings).

I loved baking with my little helpers.  While it took an entire afternoon- I was so happy to bring cookies to neighbors, two Christmas parties, and fill the cute bellies of my babies.