Christmas Eve

We're all ready for Christmas here, and today wasn't even that stressful.  Cory got to do some charity work today, seeing patients who can't afford to go to a dentist.  He's in his new dental office now, and one of the guys from corporate commented on the smiles on all the doctors' faces.  They are all happy to be in the new place.

Here at home the kids and I made gingerbread men to leave for Santa tonight.

The Christmas dinner I grew up with, and the one Cory and I decided to keep as tradition, is Christmas Lasagna.  I guess it's nothing too special, except it's got Italian sausage, plenty of the best homemade sauce, and four cheeses.  Actually, it's really quite exceptional.  Since we love it so much, I doubled the recipe and made two pans, one to freeze.  Becca gave me the idea to freeze it in plastic wrap.  Then 24 hours later you wrap it in foil (or a gallon-size freezer bag if it's a 9x9) and take it out of the pan.  That way you're not missing your pan.  Just make sure to remove the plastic wrap before you bake it!

We usually leave out a couple toys we don't want to wrap with the stockings and say they're from Santa.

I cannot WAIT to see the looks on their faces when Brady doesn't see a Nerf Gun like he asked for (It's wrapped under the tree from his cousin Cole.  I'm hoping the angry bird will make up for it.), and when Brooke sees this little Elmo chair.

We got an artificial tree this year.  I love real trees, and after getting my way for the last three years, Cory finally put his foot down.  He's tired of tying it onto the car, putting water in the tree stand, and having to dispose of it later.  Fine, whatever.  At least he initiated getting it decorated this year.  He and Brady did all the ornaments and all I had to do was the ribbon.  It's pretty, but next year I'm going for jewel tones.  So if you see any clearance ornaments in blues, purples, pinks, lime greens, etc. call me next week!

Anyway, our tree is in the basement because we didn't want to have to rearrange any furniture.  It actually works out well because we're going to attempt to prevent the kids from coming down here until after church.  Church starts at 9:00, but we'll see if it actually happens.

We've just got to get the camcorder out and we're all ready to go.  I'm getting excited!