I was Brown and now I'm Wight: Christmas 2013

Our girls woke up sometime between 7 and 730, which I thought was quite respectable for their age. I put breakfast in the oven (Cinnamon Bread and Hashbrown Casserole) and we all opened stockings and presents. We did Cole's tradition of having a "Santa" (K) who picks a present from the jumbled mix under the tree and hands it to the person to whom it's addressed. Some of the highlights included K's Hug Me Elmo (from Grandpa), Cole's guitalele (a guitar the size of a ukelele), my kitchen gear, and B's crib toy. K was more excited this year than last, and was quite engaged with the whole process. B was well behaved and sat on the couch playing with whatever she could reach. We had breakfast after and then proceeded to relax...all day long. It was a really nice, low key Christmas. Cole and I are very grateful for our beautiful girls with whom we get to spend every Christmas. We loved being in our own home and spending some quality, unstructured time together and LOVED the break from school. The time together helped us feel the spirit of the season, celebrating our Savior.

Oh- also, I received a Christmas present from my Grandma in the mail earlier this month. It was a beautiful new apron. She is so talented. Both my grandparents are masters of their crafts. I hear there's a matching apron for K on the way.

We didn't do a turkey dinner this year because we did the big appetizer night on Christmas Eve and I also we aren't huge fans of the big turkey dinner. I did make a delicious beef stew that once again I forgot to take pictures of. Here's my blog link and here's the original Rachael Ray recipe (mine is slightly altered- but hers has a picture). It was lovely.

Cole went to bed relatively early as he was planning on going to Future Shop for Boxing Day (he needed a new computer and a few other electronics that had died on us). This meant I got to stay up and peacefully watch the Downton Abbey Christmas Special. I thought I would fall asleep but I remained wide awake until 1230 when I finished it (it was 90 mins long). It was fun to see Paul Giamatti guest star.

Cole was successful at Future Shop. He showed up before 6am and was home by 730am before I was even out of bed. He got a new laptop, sound bar for our TV, bluray player and phone (all things that were needing replacing anyways- waiting till Boxing Day meant awesome prices). This means I get to inherit Cole's old laptop. So Happy Boxing Day to both of us!

We spent the afternoon at Beban Park letting K run off her holiday energy (waay too much chocolate in this little girl).