Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas!! Ben joined me for stockings up at my parents house this morning. We were teasing Kate by telling her that before we opened any presents, we all had LOTS of things we needed to get done first, and some of us might even take naps, etc. In fact, it would probably be AWHILE before we got to open ANY presents. She was super concerned about it.



But then we said "Just kidding! Let's go!"



Kate got to distribute all the stockings.






She helped with some of the unwrapping, too!



Stockings!



Mom got Christmas Dots!



Mer and Pete always have the coolest wrapping paper.



After stockings, we were all super hungry. We decided to take a break for breakfast. Although Kate kept insisting that she was NOT hungry and could totally just continue on with the present opening, she happily switched gears once we got into the kitchen. We made french toast!



The best french toast in the WORLD because we used Mer's famous homemade cinnamon bread.



Griddle patrol!



Look at all of that french toast! Yay!



I was in charge of the powdered sugar.



Meanwhile, Dad was cooking up sausage!!



The sausage comes from our friend Chuck's farm and it is the best!! It's so lean and flavorful.



A complete breakfast!



Yum!



Once we were done with breakfast, Ben headed out to his Mom's and the rest of us headed back to the living room for more presents!



Mer got cupcake hats for Mom and I, and Mom got a cupcake hat for Mer! TRIPLETS!!! Mom is vanilla, I am red velvet, and Mer is chocolate!



Eventually I made it out to Cheryl's to join Ben. Then we all headed to Vana's for Christmas Dinner! There was a huge, fresh salad.



Cheryl made two kinds of lasagna!



Mmm, a giant mountain of garlic bread.



Time to dish up!






YUM!!



Cheryl made a grape pie for dessert. It was awesome!



I have no idea who took this picture of Dennis, but I like it.



Merry Christmas, folks!