Christmas

What an amazing Christmas. We moved into our house only 2 days before Christmas and were able to get the tree up and decorated, the stockings were hung, and the elf even found us at our new home. We are loving it. It feels like home. WE. ARE. HOME.

I will post pictures soon. I promise. I just want to get the wall pictures hung....

Santa came and brought the kids oodles of toys and other junk that we won't remember in a month. But, it was fun nonetheless. Garrett was soooo excited and kept running to the window looking for Santa or "Bah" as he called him. The kid is pretty smart and knew exactly what was happening. He had sat on Santa's lap a few days earlier so he knew that toys were on the way. When Gracie woke up in the morning, she got Jake and they went to wake Garrett up. He was so happy that Santa had come he was shaking. I have never seen this reaction from a baby in my life. Talk about the good stuff. Anyway, the highlight were the Glitter balls that the kids got. When Gracie sat on Santa's lap, the only thing she asked for was a glitter ball and she did mention that she had a list.... but that seemed secondary to the ever facinating GLITTER BALL.... you know the ones full of water and glitter. They actually are pretty entertaining.

We had an equally amazing New Years... the big night consisted of a house full of good friends and family for food, games, fireworks, and noise. The kids ran wild and we gambled with the ladies coming away as winners. Woo Hoo for 2010!

Christmas Chaos!

Okay, I have been a busy little mommy this past few weeks and have totally put the blog on the back burner...

I would like to take this time to recap the last weeks of December...

First we had Karli's Birthday to celebrate... it was a good time, we went to her Favorite place... Citris Grill, for some famous artichoke dip and I had the usual pizza number one. It was amazing, as always!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARLI! WE LOVE YOU!

On the 13th, Santa dropped off our very own 'Elf on the Shelf' which Gracie named Maddie. Maddie is an elf that comes into your house and watches the kids all day and then returns to the North Pole at night to report their behavior to Santa. What an amazing little elf... she is magic. Each morning she returned and found a new place in the house to sit and watch the kids. It was fun to see Gracie wake up each morning and run to look for Maddie's new spot.

Then we celebrated the holidays with several groups of amazing people... The first group (in no specific order) was Kim, Jenni, the kids, and the hubby's... it was a Friday night filled with gifts, lasagne, and good times. Thank you Jenni for doing pretty much everything to make the night a success. Everything turned out wonderful... probably because I didn't do ANYTHING!

You girls are priceless to me! I am so lucky to have such amazing girl friends. I hope our daughters stay friends throughout their lives and are there for each other like you have always been there for me. I love you both so much!

We then went to another fun Christmas party on Saturday hosted by some other great friends, Brian & Trina... I love this group of friends... (same group we spent Halloween with!) We are guaranteed a good time with you guys. I don't remember a lot about the night but I do know I came home with two really great aprons and a headache to last a lifetime.... Not so fun!

Next we celebrated with the Families.... My side on Sunday at Grandma Lucy's! I made a huge pot of Chili and my wonderful mother made her famous Clam Chowder... YUMMY! We were able to hang out with some sweet cousins that we rarely see with our busy lives. It is always good to get together with everyone even if it is only once or twice a year.

Christmas Eve was great... snow, snow and more snow! We always spend Christmas Eve at Jake's Grandparents house.... it is pure CHAOS and that is exactly what I love about it. We had a great dinner and then the fun began. Here is how it went:

Gracie opened her first gift from uncle Paul. She was sooooo excited to open it and it turned out to be FAKE POOP.... She Cried.. It was hilarious! I know I am mean but it was too funny not to laugh. She thought the poop was the only gift she was going to get...she was not happy, poor girl! The little boys all got little guys that pee when you pull down their pants... I was peed on several times that night. All the little girls got fake poop but Gracie was the only one that cried. Paul also gave all the little boys real birds....finches. Gracie wanted one sooo bad and Conner graciously said that she could have his but we are terrible mean parents and wouldn't let her take the birds home. We blamed it on Sally the Cat. I knew she would come in handy. The kids finished opening up gifts and then BINGO! I love this game. We all bring prizes for the winners... Jake won and Gracie picked a black cabbage patch doll... Success... She loves it. It was meant to be a joke gift and it turns out that the doll is just what Gracie wanted. Yay!

We got home late Christmas Eve and went to bed after midnight exhausted from all of the festivities. Karli slept over with Gracie. When we woke up on Christmas morning.... SANTA HAD CAME! It was amazing to watch how excited and happy Gracie was. She was amazed that Santa brought her stuff that she didn't even ask for. Here is a quick list of the things that Santa and others gave Gracie... talk about spoiled!

- Sleeping Beauty Barbie-Sleeping Beauty Walking Horse-Princess table and chairs-Princess Polly Pockets-Two pair of shoes-Pajamas & underwear-Make-up-Movies and Leapster games-Necklaces -Nintendo DS & Games (Granny Goose and Papa)-Portable DVD Player (Karli)-Snorkeling Gear (Grandma & Grandpa)-Littlest Pet Shop (Grandma & Grandpa Thomas)-Smart Cycle (Ya Ya) and much more... Good night.. I don't know what to do with all this Stuff!

Garrett didn't need much as he is only 9 months old... so he got clothes, pajamas, shoes, blankets, and a few toys... A walk behind or ride on fire truck and a leapster ride on/walk behind.

Jake got a new surround sound system and some clothes and shoes... not much... but I got spoiled rotten.

Jake gave me the new Cannon SXI Rebel camera that I have wanted forever! I was sooo excited. Now I just have to figure out how to use all the great features and lenses. Good thing we are off to Hawaii to try it out!

On Sunday after Christmas we went to Dorene's for another Christmas party with Jake's Mom's side of the family and played more BINGO! I won $100! It was super fun.

Somewhere in the midst of all the Christmas Chaos and the SNOW Jake wrecked my car. He chose to take my car (the one with low profile tires that doesn't stop in the snow) one snowy morning because his truck was sparkling clean and he didn't want to get it dirty. Go figure! He crashed into a huge boulder... good times... that is one expensive car wash but I'm soooo not mad because I had the best Christmas ever! Did I mention that Jake gave me the camera that I have wanted forever!!!!

I have soooo many new pics on my camera that I need to go through... so I will add pictures of all the chaos soon.

Only the Best Christmas Party EVER!

Every year Jake and I host a Christmas party for a fun group of friends. It's an adult party and we exchange white elephant gifts. This is the 4th year its been going on. I hope this Christmas tradition never ends. I make a big dinner and cocktails and everybody brings something to share. This year we had about 25 people.

I made a couple of roasts, a tri-tip, Jake and Daniel fried a turkey, we had rolls, green beans, mashed potatoes, and an amazing salad... thanks to Mark. I attempted a signature cocktail without trying it first... it was horrible. I made peppermintini's from a recipe off the Internet. BIG MISTAKE! After trying a couple of them, we knew they were not going to work out... so, we added some delicious chocolate syrup to them and VIOLA... they were fabulous! But we had to change the name to MOCHA MINTINI! They were so cute and festive with crushed candy cane around the rim and a mini cane for garnish... I wish they tasted as good as they looked.

So, the party was supposed to start at 7:00... it didn't. I should have known to tell everybody an hour early, because I think some of the goods got cold. It was a success nonetheless.

As people started trickling in, conversations were going on all around. One particular conversation stands out to me. I was talking to Jake's (and now my) cousin, Jenny Butterfield. and here's how it went:

Jenny: "There is a surprise coming"
Me: "who? You have to tell me." I am so dumb and didn't realize what I had just said, so then I said this... "Oh my gosh, it's Jason, Is Jason coming?"
Jenny: "No, that would be so awesome though. I wish he was coming.... it's someone else but I am not going to tell you" Note: she said this with the saddest look on her face... I was convinced it WAS NOT JASON.
Me: "Please, Just tell me" "Jenny, I thought it was Jason and I almost pooped my pants" "Now, you have to tell me."
Jenny: "I am not telling, you will just have to wait. "
Annie: "Ok, you don't have to tell me" ... as I reluctantly changed the subject and forgot about the whole thing.

About 20 minutes passed and I was busy doing who knows what when in walks the surprise....

Jason was here!

I screamed... I didn't know what else to do. He was not supposed to be here. He was in Kansas and leaving for Afghanistan in 2 days. WHAT IS GOING ON? Jenny Lied... I am mad! Not really... but that was the BEST SURPRISE EVER!

We all had the greatest time. I didn't make it to bed until 6 am. WOW! I am still tired.

We ate dinner and cleaned up a bit and sat down to exchange white elephant gifts. I was soooo excited because I had been planning mine for 3 weeks. It was amazing. I had made a poster size picture of Jake on Halloween in his speedo. Funniest thing ever. Jake gave Jason a going away "dance" and that was the highlight of the night. It may show up on youtube... you never know. Jeff professed his love to his "best friends" and we all cried for Jason.

This was one of the better nights we have had... and we have a lot of great nights with this group of friends. It almost seems not real.

I don't have my camera at the moment but will post pics when I get it back. Can't wait.