Christmas Eve weekend and stuff.......

We had a great weekend leading up to Christmas complete with snowmobile parties, making reindeer food, (oats and glitter) Buffalo Prime Rib dinner with my parents and siblings, and the always fantastic Christmas Eve party at my Grandma and Grandpa's. If you have ever wondered why most Erickson's aren't thin, you should try the food at these shindigs. WOW!

The weather was horrid on our way home. We broke trail around Palisades Lake and only when we got to Swan Valley did things get a little better. It was possibly crazy to keep going but Santa didn't know we were in Wyoming so we had to continue. :) It had REALLY snowed at home. There were several inches everywhere. We found 3 plates of neighbor treats under the snow. We had to shovel off the porch to get everything in. Thankfully our nice neighbor had plowed our driveway. Nice neighbors are great! Our next door neighbor Kim had even taken our UPS packages out of the snow and gave them to Mark when we got home. (around midnight)

Thankfully Santa made it to our house and I think everyone was excited with his gifts. The girls got American Girl dolls and they were so fun. They shrieked with excitement and that made me really happy. Ryan was thrilled with his remote control helicopter, and Zachy liked his Little People Pirate Ship. He only wanted to open 2 presents, period. He finally opened the rest at 4:00 pm. He was funny. It was overall a great Christmas and I think the kids were thrilled. That's what it's all about.

Mark's big 33rd birthday was the 26th. The poor guy had to work but we had pie and ice cream with Betsy and Jonah when he got home.

My cute nephew Adam turned 2 yesterday. Happy birthday Adam, we love you!

I'm a Scrooge or a Grinch or whatever-

I was in the Christmas spirit, that is until we needed new brakes on the van today. What a great time of year for that to happen! Oh, well. Stuff happens.

The kids are home for their break. I supplied treats to two of their classrooms today and all the kids were hopped up on sugar and excitement!

This time of year I am always looking for a cool appetizer. This one (also from my mother-in-law) is easy and always a huge hit.

Pickle Wraps
8 oz cream cheese
Buddig thin sliced meat
Dill pickles

Cut pickles in half lengthwise, put a thin layer of cream cheese on the meat and wrap up. Try it, it's YUMMY!

Holiday Recipe time!

Shelly had this fun recipe challenge on her blog. I would love to play along.

(my mother-in-law's awesome Christmas cookies)

Sandy's Butter Cookies
1/2 lb. butter (butter is BEST)
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour

Cream butter, add sugar and mix well. Add other
ingredients. (Sandy uses a spritz tool to make
her shapes, I roll them out and use very small cookie
cutters) Bake at 375 for 5-6 min. (I usually do 8-9 min.)

Butter Frosting
1/3 cup butter (soft)
3 c. powdered sugar
3 TBS. cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
Mix together. I separate the frosting and
make it into different colors w/food coloring.

Christmases past

Christmas Eve at Grandma's is and was the best (Christmas Eve 1980- I am in the cute yellow pj's)


Christmas 1957
My Grandparents weren't even 25 yet in this picture-my dad is the little guy standing in front of my Grandpa. He and his sister Carrie are Irish twins in every sense, they are even both born in 1953. (Jan and Dec!)

I can't believe it's just a week until Christmas. This is generally where immense panic would set in and I would run around and make sure I had enough and everything was even for the kids, etc. Thankfully this year Mark and I made a spreadsheet in early November and that has been so very wonderful for keeping things straight.

When I was a kid we so looked forward to Christmas Eve at my Grandpa and Grandma Erickson's. I still do. My grandparents are only in their early 70's so I have been lucky enough to spend a lot of time with them and my kids know them well too. Christmas Eve was so fun because we got to open our new PJ's from my Grandma, open a present from one of our cousins, and eat tons of good food, Grandma would read the Christmas story from the Bible and then sometimes even Santa would run through for a minute on his way to deliver our presents! It was so much about the anticipation of Christmas morning too. (more about them later)

Kendy G

A little about my little brother. He's a cool guy. He's getting me the new Josh Groban CD, Noel and I am so excited. He knows I love Josh Groban! Kendall is 7 years my junior and my first brother. (Zane is 19)

A few years ago he went on a mission to Santiago, Chile and he now has a great insurance business in Wyoming. He's right now trying to figure out how I could work for him from here. We get along great with only the occasional sarcastic comment. (we are both good at those) He's a great guy and I am so happy he has found a great girl, Chelsi. He's leaving to go visit her in VA tomorrow. Have a safe trip and remember who you are. ;) Yes, I am the bossy older sister. I can't help it. It's my nature. Anywho, we really like Chelsi and we hope things continue to go fabulous for them.

Ryan did great at his 3rd grade program tonight. He had a line in the program and he must have practiced it 500 times. He did wonderfully!

A few wintery pics

It's been a crazy week but I at least wanted to show off my cute niece and nephews and post the super easy Christmas card I made. I am working on a few but this was super easy with a template from shabbyprincess. Oh, and isn't my sister's country/primitive tree cute? It's even cuter in person.

On the mend again.....

As I type this, everyone in my family is healthy. Hooray! It's amazing how quickly I take being healthy for granted. Kate got feeling better at about noon today and we have had a nice evening. The only downside to the night was that it started snowing. I have enjoyed not dealing with the white stuff the last few days.

We have several things going on this weekend and I really hope to get a good picture of my kids in the front of the Christmas tree. There is never a good time to get Zachy to cooperate when I am trying to take his picture.

Have a fabulous weekend and stay out of Walmart on Sat. if you don't want to pull your hair out. :)I like crowds less and less as each year goes by.