Friday, January 1, 2010

Christmas Rewind

Happy New Year!

First post of 2010- how exciting! Want some new, fresh and inspiring info?
Well, you might have to look elsewhere... we're headed back to properly cover Christmas, my friends.

I'm a slacker and LOST misplaced our camera upload cable, so that's why there was a Christmas post delay. But don't despair! It was found today in a thorough {but fleeting} clean sweep of the house with New Year exhilaration.

Our Christmas season was full of Christmas treats and time with family. I love Christmas baking and these little guys are some of my favorites. They are the peanut butter filled pretzels {big buckets from Sam's} covered in chocolate and then sprinkled {because all things are better with sprinkles}.
Dec 09.6 041
Our Christmas #1 was with Jason's family at his parents' house on Christmas Eve Eve {y'all call it that, too, right?}.
My favorite surprise gift there was the gift I gave to Jason's sister. She is a big Pioneer Woman fan {you should be, too} and I ordered P-Dub's cookbook for her and my wonderful bloggy friend, Mary, got it autographed for her when she met her in Kansas City.
Isn't that cool?
She loved it!
PW Cookbook
Christmas #2 was at our house on Christmas Eve. We wrote a letter to Santa Claus and asked him to come a day early to our house and he was kind enough to oblige.

And the kids were kind enough to not give a rip what day all these toys showed up.
Dec 09.6 098
We had a special breakfast that included a birthday cake for Jesus. Another Happy Birthday, Jesus party! I should say this was a "special" looking cake that only Jesus could love.
Dec 09.6 108
It took us several hours to unwrap, cut and release the toys from their captivity, but we finally got packed and headed down to Dothan.
Dec 09.6 106
We drove right up to my Grandmother Hart's house for Christmas #3 with that entire family {I think there were 35-ish people there with mass chaos}.
I love this idea below, though! My grandmother covers her tables with butcher paper and the kids color and love it!
Dec 09.6 113
We have played a legendary Dirty Santa game there for about 25 years- way before it was cool. And the gifts have always ranged from horrible {women's nightgown} to wonderful {coolers full of steaks} and everything in between.
I ended up coming home with $30 worth of lightbulbs {very useful!}. Jason got a nice Auburn hat.
My dad ended up with this gem:
It's a Keeper
You can imagine he had a few words to say about it. But mom loves it for Easter!

Christmas #4 was at my mom and dad's house on Christmas morning. We were showered with terrific gifts {including a Wii, that Jason the kids love}.
It's a running joke in my family that I love a good informercial- especially if the product solves a ridiculous "problem". I just love their psuedo-frustration- always in black and white.
Anyway, my sister got me this- my new prized possession! Dec 09.6 233
And it DOES make perfect brownies!!
Dec 09.6 236

On Christmas day, we went down to St. George Island {where my mom's family has always vacationed} for Christmas #5.

At this point, Ollie and Henry think that they wake up/ walk in a room and there should be presents waiting for them- a lovely lesson to teach.

One thing we forgot about traveling on Christmas Day is that NOTHING is open. So this is where we got our lunch in Marianna, FL.
Christmas lunch
Nothing says Merry Christmas quite like Lunchables in the car. Dec 09.6 147
Our favorite thing at the beach was time with family. Mom and Dad rented us a separate house as part of our Christmas gift and it came with this lovely view. We shared the house with my cousin Marcus, his wife Holly and their almost 1 year old SK. Dec 09.6 149
And we only got to go out on the boat once {no fishing or lying}, but we enjoyed this cute house!
Dec 09.6 150
We bundled up and went to the playground on one sunny dayH on playground
where my dad challenged me to cross this balance beam.
He couldn't do it.
Dad on balance beam
Nor could my husband.
Jason on balance beam
But yours truly did it easily {*ahem*} despite heckling and possible things being thrown at her.

One last little Christmas surprise was waiting for me and Holly on one of our many trips to the Island Marketplace {the only, TINY grocery store}. We saw a large, older black man with rainbow hair and knew it could only be...

George Clinton.

So we put it in reverse, pulled out our Southern accents and charms and hopped out to meet him.
Hillary with George Clinton

Dec 09.6 204
Apparently he lives close by and vacations on St. George Island often. He was very kind and generous with his time to talk and hug on some weird girls weilding a camera. I guess you're used to that when you're a tad famous.

WHEW! You can see we needed the break after our Christmas whirlwinds. I can't help but be anything but thankful, though, for family who likes us and wants us to be there with them. What a great problem to have.

I resolve to only talk about things that happened in 2010 from now on, okay?
I hope you've had a fantastic Christmas season!

What was your favorite gift to give or receive this Christmas?
Extra points if it was an informercial product. Did I mention that I also gave a Snuggie, Bumpits AND a Neckline Slimmer this Christmas {all to different people}?
Oh, yes I did.

17 comments:

Kelli said...

Great post! It all sounds ridiculously fun and I'm so glad you all have {five} wonderful Christmases!
Happy New Year, friend!
Kelli @ SustainingCreativity

Unknown said...

Glad you had a great holiday, but your pic w/ George Clinton is the best! I'll have to drag my husband here to see it, 'cause he totally grooves on all things "old school." (Both the funky black & the so-totally-square white "old school.)

My best gift received was a new hand mixer, since the now-former one came with me to college over 20 years ago & was starting to ooze green stuff from the power cord. The best gift given was a "bloop-bloop" to my son; actually, Santa gave it, but I had to explain to Santa what a "bloop-bloop" was. And that since those desk fidgets you can flip & watch the colored water & oils bloop-bloop past each are not trendy right now, Santa & I agreed that an educational replica of a volcano (complete with red LED and plastic, red "lava" pellets) would be just as good. Oh, it is!

BASSakward Tales said...

you are such a great writer....and your boys.they are so stinking cute...i always look forward to your blog...and st. george's island...i am so jealous...have a great week.....

Melissa said...

Favorite gift to give: I have a friend who is a brand new grandma (as in the baby was born Dec. 14). So I bought a frame that had a really sweet verse about grandchildren, sneaked around and did a little photo session with the new baby, and gave her the framed photo, along with a CD of all the pics I took.

Favorite gift I received: the new Garland House cookbook. I made the strawberry congealed salad yesterday. (Remember, they always made it in the individual molds & served with mayo & a sprig of parsley on top?) I wasn't fancy enough to make it in little molds, but it was still yummy!

Sandra said...

Wow! You had a nice,busy Christmas! I have wondered if the "Perfect Brownie Pan" was indeed that. Now I definitely need to get me one of those!

Lori said...

What a fun Christmas you had, and how random that you saw George Clinton!? You've got another celeb to add to your list... :)

Matt, Carrie, Lucy and Molly Allen said...

hillary-loved this post and the ode to all things infomercial! we gave a snuggie and lucy got a snuggie. oh and yesterday lucy saw the commercial for bumpits and came to me and said, "mom we need to get some of those bumpits...you can even put it under a ponytail!" and then later she looked in the mirror and said, "ugh, i don't like my hair flat!" ha! she was sold! and i guess i need a SLAPCHOP b/c according to the guy on the commercial, my life will be exciting again and pretty much all the worlds woes can be solved if you have one!

The Incredible Shrinking Woman said...

A Neckline slimmer? Dang, I'm so jealous in a very churchy way...

Carrie said...

My best gift this Christmas was an autographed copy of the Pioneer Woman's cookbook given to me by my wonderful, awesome SIL!! I LOVE IT!!!

Stephanie B said...

Ok, I have to say that I almost gave my keyboard a shower when I scrolled down and saw the pic of Jason, spoonful halfway to his mouth!! Surely he was not driving with his knees, right? ;-)

Glad y'all had such a wonderful, fun, blessed Christmas!

Diana said...

George Clinton!

I got one of those brownie pans from my MIL a while back. I would love it more if it made all the brownies have edge pieces like I love and thought it would do. I guess I need that twisty-curvy pan for that. If you need an awesome, easy homemade brownie recipe (no box, but not too much more effort), I have one.

I hope you guys were stopped for that two-handed Lunchables pudding snarf!

I got a Nook for Christmas from Pat. Rather, I got the promise of a Nook (it's Barnes and Noble's ebook reader) since it's backordered. It should ship Monday! So I'll say that's the present I'm most looking forward to having. For what I actually have in my possession right now, my favorite was the windshield wiper-thingy that I'm sure there's an infomercial for but I can't remember it's exact name. My inside windshield was getting pretty terrible!

Mr. and Mrs. Nurse Boy said...

So glad your Christmas was blessed! I WANTED a Snuggie, but NADA. Yes, I really do want one. It was -4 degrees here yesterday. No lie. YUCK!

Mrs. NB

Ivy said...

I love the pictures of the celebrity sighting!! So funny. Glad ya'll had a Merry Christmas!

maggie may said...

i am so relieved that any possible slightly smooshed brownies are a thing of the past for you. there is nothing, absolutely nothing, worse than a smooshed or not square brownie. i think we all breathed a sigh of relief when we saw that info-mercial. ;) now if i could just find a blanket with sleeves my life would be perfection. teehee

Mary @ Giving Up On Perfect said...

Wow! Sounds like just a GREAT Christmas!!

I'd never had those chocolate covered pretzel peanut butter things before - until my neighbor made a bunch for us. Oh My Yum.

Mark got a Snuggie for Christmas and can't stop asking me, "Are you jealous of my Snuggie?"

And yes, how DO I break it to Annalyn that there will be no more presents? (At least until Easter...)

Unknown said...

i had meant to post on this earlier, but how cool is it that you got your picture with George Clinton!!! and im glad im not the only mom who knows who he is ;) my favorite gift... my very own punch bowl :) and 4 new charms for my bracelet :)

Hollie and Janie said...

P Dub... you make me giggle!! i love her, too, and bakerella (see my cakeball post)! i made her best.ever.chocolate.cake.
i love the pic of you and george clinton!!

Post a Comment

You're leaving a comment? Thanks!
You make my day!
I'd hug you, but this screen makes it a little awkward.
xoxo,
Hillary

Blog Widget by LinkWithin