December 28, 2009

Crazy Christmas - Part 1

(sigh) So many pictures, so little blog. Between my mom taking 177 pictures and counting, as well as me, my dad, and my brother all taking pictures, lets just say, I have a lot of pictures. Does that seem too obvious of a statement?

But which ones to choose? Which ones to leave out? See what life-altering, life and death choices I have to face everyday?

I'll accept sympathy gifts in chocolate.

Well, I guess I'll just start at the beginning.

Wednesday, December 23.

It was a day filled with me, myself, and I, cleaning, cooking, and bribing my kids to not touch things or make messes as we awaited the arrival of my parents and youngest brother who were coming to spend Christmas with us.

Their 8-hour drive ended just as it was time to put the kids to bed. But we let them stay up and bask in the attention of Granny and Papa.



This is where my creative side comes from. I use to spend hours upon hours doodling with my dad. Now, its Savannah's turn. She loves to doodle too.

I admit, even I was impressed that my dad managed to draw her a whole maze just before bedtime.



Christmas morning came and my hubby had to go into work. So, the rest of us loaded up and spent all morning shopping for food and other neseccary items. Seeing as how there are currently 14 people in our little house, it was a very brilliant idea.

Don't be too surprised. I get some of those occasionally.

At this point we were awaiting news of my two brothers who were driving up from the east coast bringing a U-haul full of my dad's old propane tanks. This U-haul was later lovingly named, "the Spawn of Satan".

That's when we got the call.

In an attempt to avoid the big blizzard sweeping through the mid-west, they ended up right smack in the middle of a storm in Texas. They had crashed. But I'll let them tell that story themselves. As soon as they have the story up, I'll send a link to it.

For the next couple hours, all that could be heard was the pinging and ringing of cell phones as texts, pictures and phone calls were on a rampage.

After a family prayer, things worked out so that my brothers could continue to drive the smashed vehicle across the country and arrived here about 1:30am the day after Christmas.
But jumping back to Christmas Eve.


Can you tell the kids had a lot of fun? What? I can't help it. I'm a state the obvious kind of girl.

As is Christmas Eve tradition for my family, we had clam chowder in bread bowls for dinner.



I'll be happy to share my top secret recipe with you all, just because I like you so much. Ready?

Serene's Famous Clam Chowder

Drive to Sam's Club, buy a case of Progresso Clam Chowder, open the cans and warm up over medium heat, Wa-la! A culinary masterpiece everyone will enjoy! (Unless you have a shell fish allergy like my little brother. Then it probably wouldn't be the best of ideas)




Savannah came home from school one day declaring that we needed to make cookies for Santa. We have never done that before so I thought it would be a fun tradition to start.

Santa likes chocolate chip cookies the best.



WOW! Look at me! I look like I belong in a Martha Stewart magazine! Its amazing what an apron can do for one's personna. Maybe I'll be asked to model in, "Pretending to Cook" next month.


With the cookies made, there was nothing left to do but wait... and lick the oven in an attempt to swipe a cookie.

And make cool ribbon hats.



The next morning, Savannah came tearing into my room yelling that Santa had come and ate all her cookies. He even left her a thak you note. Because Santa is thoughtful like that.

And that was only the beginning of the craziness to come.

To be continued....


I'm always looking for new ideas. What are some of your Christmas Eve traditions?

6 super cool people speak:

Brittney said...

Wow, Savannah is looking SO old!

And those cookies are making my mouth water..

ldsjaneite said...

Christmas Eve tradition: going to sleep. It's definitely one of my favorites.

I love bread bowls! But I'll be honest--I hate clam chowder. I try and try, yet it still tastes like overly buttery/salty liquid with tiny pieces of rubber inside. Now cheesy potato chowder? Oh yeah.

James and Jessi McCalvy said...

I'm Sarah H's cousin Jessi... Christmas Eve Eve (the night of the 23rd) is a favorite of ours. When we were small, we begged to sleep by the Christmas Tree. Christmas Eve was out of course, so we ended up sleeping (or not) in the livingroom on Christmas Eve Eve. Now that we're all grown up, my Mom invites all of her grandkids over for C.E.E. to spend the night by her tree. They play games and make cookies and wear out my parents while the parents get a date night or a last minute Christmas put together night... Way fun.

Serene is my name, not my life! said...

Thanks! I LOVE that idea!!

Tarmy said...

Do you know why you eat clam chowder on Christmas Eve? My in-laws do and I asked my husband and he doesn't know...

Your kids are darling!

Serene is my name, not my life! said...

The only reason I know of is that my dad's family always had oyster stew on Christmas Eve, but my mom changed it to clam chowder (thank goodness!)

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