Christmas Day

I've been having issues with video, so that will have to wait. But enjoy some photos! Christmas day was fairly calm around here. It was just Rendon, Carolina, Zucker and I. Zucker (or Adam) is Rendon's good friend from work who wasn't going home for the holidays, so he brought the gifts from his family over here, and spent Christmas with us. Carolina loves Zucker. If the dogs start barking, and Rendon and I are both here, she gets really excited and goes "Zucka Zucka?!". So she was thrilled he spent all day here. And he gave her Mickey and Minnie plushes, you can't go wrong with that! We all loved our present from everyone, thank you! And Carolina is loving playing with all her new toys, puzzles, and of course books. Towards the end of the presents we practically had to make her open them, and she could hardly walk around. Throughout the day we snacked on bacon wrapped water chesnuts dipped in BBQ sauce and snowball cookies. For those not enlighted on the bacon wrapped water chesnut's greatness, you have to try them! They sound weird, I know, but they're AMAZING! For dinner we had ham(store bought, I was sick, and store bought is so easy!), sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, baked mac and cheese, watergate salad, deviled eggs, and 'Lori's bread' (Rendon's mom makes this amazing bread from a whole stick of butter and grands biscuits, I don't have another name for it). For dessert, I went the easy route and did homemade pumpkin pie with homemade whip cream! I'm including my version of the recipe I found online for green bean casserole. I didn't want to do the whole cream of mushroom soup deal, so I found an alternate, and altered it a little bit. Never going back to cream of mushroom now! Even Zucker, who is not a green bean casserole guy, raved about it!

Green Bean Casserole

2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
(1 tsp of salt if using fresh or frozen greenbeans, none if using canned)
1/4 c diced onion
1/2 Tbsp minced fresh garlic
little less than 1 c sour cream (I used light)
2 28 oz cans french cut green beans, drained
2 c shredded sharp cheddar
1/3 c crumbled ritz crackers
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 sm. can fried onions

Preheat oven to 350. Melt 2 tbsp butter in large skillet over medium heat. Saute diced onions until they start to soften. Stir in garlic and cook for 30 seconds or so. Stir in flour and cook for about 1 minute. Stir in salt (if using), sugar, and sourcream. Then stir in the greenbeans till coated. Mix in 3/4 c of cheddar and about 1/2 the can of fried onions. Pour into a casserole dish. Top with remaining cheddar cheese. In sm. bowl, toss together the 1 Tbsp melted butter and crumbled ritz, and sprinkle over the cheese. Bake for 30 min or until top is golden. With about 10 minutes remaining in the baking time sprinkle with remaining fried onions.


Checking out her new kitchen from Santa



Her stocking had lots of books and some candy. I looked away at one point and when I looked back she had already figured out how to open the Chocolate Santas and was eating one.




Opening a shirt from Aunt Angela and Aunt Erin. Her favorite part of this present was the paper. As she unwrapped it she named all the characters.


Multi-tasker. Eating candy and opening her jacket from Grandma and Grandpa.


Lounging on Roxy.


Riding the Wheeley Bug


Waiting for Daddy to put on her new fancy boots from Grandmother!


Cabbage Patch Snugglies


One of her faves! TWELVE Mickey books from Aunt Angela and Aunt Erin. Since Christmas, at least one of these books has been included in every naptime and bedtime reading selection!


Cabbage Patch 25th anniversary baby. She found this present a few weeks ago, so she knew that she came with an ice cream cone. Surprisingly, she remembered this, and as she opened the doll she exclaimed "I-KEME!" and immediately found it in the box.


Her nursery for her baby dolls from Uncle Evan, Aunt Christy, Emmy, and Abigail. This is in constant use as well! One baby or another is always sleeping (Shhhh!, as Carolina tells us) and another is eating.


Oswald plushes--here you see Daisy. Many of you know what I went through to get them, but it all worked out and Carolina LOVES them! Every night she asks for each one (as well as Mickey and Minnie) to be on the couch with her as she does her medicine.


One of her many puzzles (this one from Grandpa and Grandma). As she opened each one she would name what each piece was, then go on to the next present.


Kitchen accessories from Uncle Charlie, Aunt Nancy, Ashleigh and Lacie.


Chef Lina Belle



We found a bag of pink balloons from a baby shower a while back, and blew some up for Carolina. She kept trying to sit on them. I almost caught her balancing on this one, but she started to fall--which could have only been funnier had I caught it on video.


One of Carolina's quirky quirks. She's been doing this foooooorrrrr, well I can't even remember when it started. Anytime she takes off socks, or shoes, or just randomly throughout the day, she plops down to check her toes. She spreads apart each one on each foot, and if she sees the tiniest speck, she HAS to wipe it out. She's pretty efficient now, but she used to get really frustrated because she couldn't get the specks out, and we'd have to for her. If you ask her if your toes are dirty, she will inspect them for you...we don't encourage this though, for one, feet aren't the cleanest, and two--well, it tickles....





Carolina and her new medicine buddies!