Monday, December 27, 2010

Soup's On!

What a weekend! From Friday morning until 20 minutes ago, I've hardly stopped moving. I started Friday AM at Trader Joe's (the kids, still in their pajamas, and I arrived five minutes before opening) to load up on all the ingredients for our Christmas Eve soup dinner:




Then I spent the rest of the day leisurely cleaning and cooking while the Mr. organized the garage and my oldest daughter organized her closet (two Christmas miracles indeed!) It was a beautiful day - sunny and in the high 60s, so I opened the windows and blasted the holiday tunes (love the free Target holiday playlist!) while Rudy kept me company in the kitchen:




Yes, it was a bit warm for a fleece blanket, but my little one likes to cover up the pooch when she's napping. Oh, and that bone on the floor is one of my favorite new doggy finds - a Nylabone. It's indestructible (so far) and she loves to chomp on it.

Our guests arrived around 5:00pm and we all enjoyed some chicken noodle, turkey chili and butternut squash soup, along with fresh bread, and amazing homemade fudge and caramel apple pie made by my great friend. We exchanged gifts and then scooted the kids off to bed to give plenty of time for them to fall into a deep sleep before the big guy arrived...

...and arrive he did! Saturday was a whirlwind of wrapping paper and ribbons, bows and bags, but it was also a wonderful day full of love and laughs and fun and family.

The kids got much of what they wanted:




...and the grown-ups did too, but more to come on that. By the time we returned home on Saturday night we fell into bed in a sugar/wine/gift coma, and spent much of Sunday making room for all our new goodies and dismantling the Christmas tree, since it had dried out a bit and was an irresistable temptation for the pup.




I hope everyone had an amazing holiday with their family and friends!

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