Holidays 2011

For Thanksgiving this year we were invited over to my cousin's house.  We had a lot of great food and this year I tried out a recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies from Made.  They were yummy and Trent helped me make them.

Trent had a great time taking pictures during Thanksgiving dinner.  He got some great shots.

Next we got ready for Christmas.

This year I bought the boys their own ornaments inspired by the things they love.  Trent's was Buzz and Woody or course and for Carter I got a little people fire truck since he loves to push trucks around.  Trent placed both of their ornaments on the tree.  After that Trent would not put anymore on, he just helped me take the rest out of their boxes.

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We also made the traditional sugar and gingerbread cookies and this year was the first year in a long time we made a gingerbread house.  

I was afraid the house would not stay together but the royal icing did it's job

The cookie making was one of my favorite parts of the holidays.  It was great watching Trent have such a good time. Auntie helped Trent with most of the decorating and he kept telling her to put more ice cream on it.  Can't wait for next year when Carter will be helping out too.

On Christmas Eve we made the trek to my cousin's house in Victorville where we had brunch.  Present time was total chaos, but so much fun.  Then later that day we headed down to Calimesa to spend time with Tim's family and open more presents.

Christmas morning was perfect.  Carter had a blast ripping off the paper and trying to play with all of Trent's toys.  Trent was in awe of everything and he was the most polite I had ever seen him.  With every present I handed him he said "thank you" as soon as it was in his hands.  Its good to know he can be polite if he wants to.

Santa brought Trent a balance bike, a Geo Trax set which he loved and a helicopter which he had asked Santa for.  Carter got a Weebles house, an airplane and a helicopter.  

Christmas day is usually very busy for us because we usually visit at least two different places, but not this year.  We relaxed at home and had a pancake breakfast.  I was even able to sneak in a nap (that hardly happens anymore on a normal day).  After our naps we went to visit my Dad's side of the family. There Trent got to play with his cousin Olivia and he had a great time.

Our New Year's was very low key.  My family came over along with Tim's cousin and the kids had a great time running around the house playing "Christmas."  Of course Carter was in bed around 7 and our plan was to celebrate with the east coast countdown.  As we were pouring champagne and getting ready to count down we realize the channel we were watching even though it said live at the top of the screen did not do a count down.  After we realized we missed it we had our own countdown and toasted to the New Year.

Each year keeps topping the rest and having kids makes the holidays a million times more special then I could have ever imagined.  I cannot wait until next year.  Let the countdown begin, only 344 days left.