Hangin with the Harrison's: 2010

Ho Ho Ho-ly Moly!!! part 1

Holy Moly....all the toys! No seriously......it is like a Toy Store in my house. We had a wonderful Christmas and the kids were extra spoiled. It is great to have everyone together to enjoy the holidays. We really are lucky to have family so close by. But I might have had mulitple panic attacks with all the toys in my living room. My house is just not big enough. But I managed to find a place for everything....barely.

Christmas Eve was spent with Mimi and Poppi. We had a nice dinner and exchanged gifts. The kids got lots of good presents (musical themed) and enjoyed opening them all.

Danner opening a present.

Sawyer.

Poppi had to help Porter open his. He wasn't too interested in opening the presents but really loved what was inside.

Instruments......never going to be quiet in my house again. But really it is never quiet anyway.

A kazoo. Sawyer was great at playing it.

Danner can't play it. She just doesn't get it.

But Porter was the best kazoo player. He is quite the musician.

More presents.

A piano..... they all fought over this one.

I promised this picture would end up on here.

Group shot...minus me and Mimi.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve....with good food and family.

Ready....

We are officially ready for Santa. We made cookies for the jolly ol guy. I let the kids help seperate m&m's to use for the cookies. They really enjoyed that especially eating all the colors we didn't need. Up next making some pies for Christmas dinner, prepping turkey, making some breakfast casseroles, Christmas Eve service, organizing presents, stockings, and sleep. Hmmm.....busy day!!!

Sneaking a taste of cookie dough.

Sorting m&m's

Finished product.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Jingle All the Way.

Sawyer singing Jingle Bells. This seriously cracks me up...especially at the end where he really shouts "JINGLE BELLS". You need to pause the playlist at the bottom to hear it.

Super Excited....

for Christmas. I can't wait to see their reactions on Christmas morning. They might be getting a ~~lot~~ teensy bit more than needed, but I can't help myself. This is the first year that they actually have an idea what is going on. Although Danner isn't too thrilled that Santa is coming into our house. She freaks out at the mere sight of him. Sawyer got close to sitting on his lap the other day. He stood next to him and told him he wanted a big truck, a car, and a helicopter, got his candy cane, and off we went. Progress....Next year we might even get a picture.

I have a really cute video of Sawyer singing Jingle Bells...he is such a ham. I must upload it....which takes years. Blah. But it is too cute not to share.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas to all of my readers, family, and friends.

Wrapping up....

The kids. They are quite entertained with wrapping paper. After seeing me attempt to wrap presents with them in the room, they took the paper and began to wrap each other. It was super cute. And I had to quit wrapping in front of them because I was losing paper, having to rewrap presents that they would open, and hunt down tape and scisssors. Nightmare!! I learned my lesson! Wait til bedtime.

Sweet Tooth

So we just got done with our annual Christmas Baking Extravaganza at the Harrison house. It smells oh-so-sweet and yummy in here. We began bright and early this morning.....for it is an all day event. Everyone has their favorite recipes and we must accomplish the entire list. (why is this underlined and blue?? don't know. just ignore that)

Our agenda went a little like this.

1. Chocolate Chip Cookies

2. Peanut Butter Balls

3. Cheese Straws

4. Thumbprint Cookies

5. Sugar Cookies

6. Saltine Heath Bar Bark (this is my all time favorite and is super easy to make)

Just a few of the needed ingredients.

Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Kim fondling some balls....................geesh y'all....it's only peanut butter balls.....or as you northerners call 'em Buckeyes.

Getting ready for some cheese straws.

Danner and Granny decorating some sugar cookies.

Danner enjoyed watching.

Cooling tables

Cute and yummy.

Finished products.....at least part of them.

A full day of cooking equals a tired kiddo sleeping on the couch.

Actually 2 tired kiddos sleeping on the couch.

Anyone else have any good holiday traditions??

Oh Christmas tree...

Goodness gracious.....our poor tree. I should have warned it the minute we picked it out.....

That it would never make it around our house. Did I mention last year I didn't even decorate the tree. We picked out a tree, put lights on it, and left it naked. Why? Really, do you not know? Yep.....kids. They abuse, poke, strip, and pull on this poor, poor tree. I once again put on the lights and this year I pulled out the decorations. I carefully started placing them on the tree......strategically placed with unbreakables at the bottom....see I am pretty smart. Did that stop them, oh no it did not. They pulled them off just as quick as I put them on. Finally after about an hour of chasing them to get the ornaments out of the hands and putting them back on the tree....repeat...repeat....I gave up. The bottom half has no decorations. Hmm. And that still isn't good enough. Porter yanks the lights off. Sawyer gets the broom and tries to get decorations from the top half. And Danner steals the ones he knocks down and hides them for herself. I find little stashes of decorations in little piles around the house. Under the table, behind the couch, under her bed....etc. I have had to sweep up 2 broken ones just today....at this rate we won't have any ornaments left by the time Christmas gets here.

Am I the only one with this problem?

Baby Shower

Thought I would share some photos from Ashley's shower. In case you can't figure it out...it was nautical themed just like her nursery. She received lots of goodies for the babies and had a great turnout.