A BUSY, BUSY MONTH...

It has been a little hectic around here...but we have found time to do some great things with some of our favorite people!!!

The night before Thanksgiving, we baked some really special cookies. The boys watched and waited very patiently...

The end result: (and yes they were the actual handprints of my darlings...I even made the sugar cookie dough from scratch, traced their hands on paper, then traced and cut them (very carefully) on the dough. matt and mikey decorated...it was the least they could do after the seriously hard work!!!! I know, one is missing a finger or two.

Then, we had a Christmas party for our favorite friends. We all acted a little childish again (using the fart machine, playing drinking games, etc. etc. etc. It was just like old times...the guys and girls were separated (boys were playing poker in "mantown"), but, we girls are always so much fun, they boys couldn't stay away for long. They joined us for many, many laughs!!! apparently, everyone had fun...our last guests (Shannon, Jen, Cindy) didn't leave until 2:30 a.m. I was pretty useless the next day.







Mikey learned how to blow dry his hair...and now does so each time he gets out of the tub. He can't understand why his hair is always sticking up when he's done.

One of the most exciting things we did was get invited to a Christmas party at HSBC arena (Thank you John!!!). We thought it was for the night employess only until we were skating around and recognized (I recognized) Andrew Peters, Derek Roy, Ryan Miller, Patrick Kaleta, Jochen Hecht, Lindy Ruff, Teppo Numminen, Max Afinogenov, Drew Stafford, and the commentator guy. I was probably more excited than my husband and children, although Matt loved the arena and skated for about 2 1/2 out of the 3 hours we were there! Check out the cool pics. Here is Matt at center ice:

Brandon for the first time on skates....ever...if I am not mistaken. Andrew Peters chuckled at him. He did not fall though...and believe me, I was waiting.

Here is Matt on the bench and with Santa...neither of the boys would sit on his lap, so this is the best we could do.

Mikey on the bench...tried to get him to go in the penalty box...he would have none of that. This was also his first time ever on ice skates. This is how he felt about it: "I am never skating again. Stupid skates." (He did, however, try again after a little while).

I think Matt was skating as fast as he could at me to try and knock me over...he skated really well, and had a blast!! Matt with Aunt Jill and John (she, by the way, is pretty impressive. She even knows how to stop like a real hockey player!)

Catching snowflakes:

O CHRISTMAS TREE, O CHRISTMAS TREE...

We spent the Saturday after Thanksgiving going to a tree farm in North Collins and cutting down our tree. Even though there wasn't much snow, we still had fun. After a while, the trees all start to look the same. But Brandon picked out a really nice one this year! And mikey helped cut it down:

Here is our tree this year:

Very hard at work:

Merry Christmas everyone...I have to go wrap some presents.