Twice Baked Christmas

For Ariel's first Christmas, she had the chance to celebrate twice. Lucky girl.

Colorado: We celebrated with Eric's family the Sunday before Christmas, as we were headed to my parent's house on Monday. We had a very tasty meal, courtesy of my Rachel Ray cookbook (I love this girl)! It was a radicchio salad, which I didn't care for and a gnocchi, chicken sausage dish with a blushing cream sauce. For dessert, we had Holiday Parfitinis, (scoop strawberry ice cream, creme de menthe over top, a healthy squirt of canned whipped topping and a cherry, garnish with pirouette cookies) delish!

Ariel, of course, made out like a bandit. Some of her highlights were a reindeer beanie, clothes, a Vtech laptop (she really enjoys slamming the lid shut) and some requested books. Eric got me a pancake griddle that makes smiley face pancakes. It sounds silly, but together we put away a small country's portion of pancakes. I got Eric a pair of Mario Bros. pj's to go with the Super Mario Bros Wii game we got. We enjoyed our day and Ariel went all day with no fussing, even though she only had a 15 min nap all day! No, she didn't sleep all night either.

the loot opening gifts first laptop

New Mexico: We made to to good ol' Alamogordo late Monday night and enjoy the laid back pace that is the southwest. Eric managed to maintain his running regimen (over achiever) and I tried to sleep as much as I could. Christmas day was a bit hectic, as my sister flew in from Florida that morning and Ariel took a super late nap. We opened presents about 2 pm. Laugh, it's funny. We ate the traditional fare of glazed ham, potatoes, mac 'n cheese, and green bean casserole. My mom made her beautiful ribbon jello, which is always on of my personal favorites and her Indiana rolls, which Eric could have single-handedly eaten. Present highlights were lottery tickets (Eric won $70 plus 3 tickets), cupcake cookbook (the things you can do with cupcakes nowadays), and step/start walk 'n ride. I was able to catch up with some friends from high school as well during this visit.

shake it or eat it santa arrived Vicki lends an elfing hand

What a way to close out the year. I hope that 2010 has more wonderful memories in store for us.