Chirstmas is over

This was our Christmas tree this year. I decided I didn't want one as big as before. With the fireplace on one side and the girls bench on the other it really squishes the corner. It was still a nice Douglas fir, almost 6 foot tall.  Would you believe we bought it at our local hardware store, Jerry's for $9.94....funny but that was the price of the wreath for the door too.  We've bought our tree there for the last 3 years and they have been beauties and not cost less than $20 dollars.  What's nice is, is it is right next door to Walmart where Ben has his optomety practice so the kids and I drive over and meet him after work.  We make it a family thing...and it's fun. Funny thing about this one is that it fit cross ways in the back of the KIA instead of on top..we definitely went compact this year.

Our Christmas was pretty good.  After we went light looking we put the Christmas Vacation movie in and had fun opening the presents.. Ethan started to hand out the presents and Chase went crazy. She is a paper nut. As soon as he set the package down in front of Cassie, Chase ran over and snatched the bow off and had it in pieces in a heartbeat.  We decided to give the girls two presents first thing.. They are hilarious watching them open them.. 

The big box to the left of the tree was for Ben.. I couldn't find anything else to wrap it in so I just took a big box... It was a big can of Almond Rocha. Of course it was on the bottom so when he opened the box all he pulled out was paper..lots of paper.  They all know, just because it's a big box doesn't mean the gift if big.. Keeps them guessing and makes gifts under the tree look like more than there really is. 

I made out pretty good. I received a pretty blue table cloth, ornament and a bar of chocolate with hazelnuts from my friend in Germany. Ben gave me speakers for my TV (it's a small flat screen but it sounded so tinnie, not is sounds great) and a T-shirt folder. We watched The Big Bang theory and saw Sheldon folding his shirts with this neat folder thing.  Since I have a tone of T-shirts to fold, told Ben I wanted one of those. So the silly man went on-line and found one.. of course it had a section that was of other things people bought too.  I've got a big basket of cloths to fold this weekend so I'm hoping to try it out.  Cassie and Ethan went to Brush Fire and made me a bowl and a tea cup and saucer.

Cassie had made me a really neat bowl with a pour spout and handle a couple years ago and I loved it but it was broken this summer.. She tried to make me another but they didn't have it anymore so she did the bowl instead.  It looks big but it's really just the right size. Not sure if you can read the bottom but the plate says Moose 2011 and the cup Mama.. He even painted the moose by hand.  Ethan also gave me a mini moose pillow. I'm sure you've seen the commercials of the big pillows. you just unhook the Velcro and it flattens out from an animal to a pillow. The little moose is so soft and cute..  I have to tell them to stop giving me stuffed moose's, I'm running out of places to put them.. but they are so cute..

I fixed a pork roast for Christmas dinner and it turned out really good. Cassie made a Chocolate silk pie for desert..very rich but oh so yummy.  It was a really nice quiet Holiday..