Christmas Fun... A Little Late

Sorry I haven't been very good about keeping the blog updated. We had a wonderful Christmas 2008! We kicked off our holiday by making Grandma Kilmer's traditional Santa cookies. Grandma found the cookie cutters/molds that she used years ago in a catalog and sent us a set. The kids and I had so much fun decorating them. I made the cookie dough, molded the cookies and baked the one evening and the kids and I decorated them the following day. They came out so cute and each cookie was so unique! It's a tradition that I think we'll keep year after year.

Joey putting the raisin "eyes" on the Santa cookies. One for Santa, one for Joey...

What a great cookie decorator!

Our Santa cookie assembly line.

Our "Best Santa"

Our "Crazy Eyes Santa"

Abigail likes frosting on her nose!

Extra frosting... time for a snack!

Yummm!

Me and my Santa cookie decorator.

We also had a great time this Christmas with a visit with Santa. We went to a pancake breakfast at church and guess who was there?! The "Jolly Red Elf" himself! Both kids feasted on pancakes and bananas and then sat on Santa's lap. Joey asked for a computer for himself and a doll for Abi. Santa was good to both kids on Christmas morning!

Joey and Abi on Santa's lap.

The week before Christmas, we traveled on Michigan by car with 2 kids, a dog and a car top carrier. The trip took 2 days and I know we swore we'd never do it again, but after flying for Thanksgiving, we discovered that driving was actually the easier option... go figure! We were in Michigan for about 5 days before coming back and we had a great visit!

Back in October, I took Joey shopping and he saw a gingerbread train kit and wanted to get it. We picked one up in Michigan when we were visiting during Thanksgiving and then while we were there again for Christmas, we put it together with Nana Barb and Aunt Lisa. Our train turned our really great, but the icing was a little runny and after awhile it collapsed! In the end we got it standing again and it was a great centerpiece for our Christmas Eve table. No one wanted to eat it though, since Joey's sweaty hands held each piece of candy! Yuck!

Abigail and Aunt Lisa playing while we decorate the gingerbread train.

Joey and Nana Barb putting the train together.

Me, Joey and my Mom with our train.

Our beautiful gingerbread train!

And then it collapsed!

Christmas Eve and Christmas day were wonderful. We had a great time spending the holidays with our families. The kids were showered with gifts (so many we had the car and the carrier stuffed to the gills on the way home). We made so many wonderful memories too!

My snowbabies... we haven't donned more than a fall jacket since getting back to NOLA!

Abi got great joy out of putting the bows all over her head.

Joey LOVES opening presents!

The day after Christmas, we went to Henry Ford Museum with Nana Sue and Papa Gene (Dave's parents). Joey loves to look at the cars there and play with the toys in the Your Place In Time exhibit! We also saw the enormous Christmas tree that the museum decorates and the elaborate toy train display that they set up for the holidays. We had hot dogs for lunch at the "Weinermobile Cafe" (my old high school place of employment) and made Kinex cars and raced them down ramps. It was a great way to finish up our holiday trip!

Joey "driving" the toy train.

Joey, Papa Gene and Daddy on the Rosa Parks bus.