California Christmas

My parents and brothers and I with my Nonna at Christmas at my parents' house.
My brothers, aunt and uncle and my cousins - Prime Rib Christmas dinner!

Brian with my aunt and uncle, Suzy and Dan

My mom and her sister, Suzy with my Grandma

Brian and I did not do a good job of taking pictures this Christmas - we have no photos of Christmas with his family! The only reason I have any photos of my family is because my aunt stole the camera and was shooting away.....maybe next year!

Bob the Kitten

Meet Bob.

Bob was given to Brennan for Christmas as a joke. Isn't he cute? (Who gives a kitten as a joke?) Bob has very soft black fur with long grey strands of fur. His eyes are blue and green. I love him and thought about bringing him home after Christmas. Maybe this warrants a trip to the animal shelter on Saturday for some kitten shopping?

Let My People Go

Brian got this lovely camel colored Snuggie for Christmas and when he wears it he looks like Moses. So, we found him a walking stick to further the image. Merry Christmas, Moses.

Christmas Dog

Here are some holiday videos of the pup. He is afraid of our singing Christmas dog....wimp! Also a great one of him opening his present.....please ignore our "dog talk" voices....

I'm definitely obsessed with my dog.

Colorado Christmas

This morning we had OUR Christmas!

Riley was dying to open his presents - here he is gazing at the goods wondering what Santa brought him.

YES! He finally gets to dig in! Santa brought him a new, tough boomerang toy and a buffalo bone. He played with them all day long and was a happy boy.

But most exciting of all - look what Brian gave me! I've wanted these earrings for a long time and have only admired them from afar, but now they're MINE! My hubby was way too generous this Christmas - I got a bunch of other awesome presents, too.

The lovely leather jacket I got Brian for Christmas has short arms, unfortunately....the sleeves hit his forearms about 4 inches above the wrist. Bummer. Luckily, the Cowboys gear he loves, along with the other Christmas gifts!

Make...It....Stop

I am VERY happy that holiday baking is over for the year. I'm completely baked out. Between last weekend's cookie fest and today's baking extravaganza, I've made over 200 cookies.

Today's cookie menu:

Snickerdoodles

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

Snickerdoodles: Easy recipe, very tasty. The recipe, surprisingly, does not make many....

Candy Cane Sugar Cookies: The Devil. I will never make these again. These were a total pain in the you know what with the two different color doughs. Not worth the effort.
Peanut Butter Blossoms: Very easy and a crowd pleaser. Too bad I'm not a big fan of peanut butter cookies, although...maybe that's a good thing. The hardest part about these is unwrapping all the kisses....thankfully, Brian helped out today.

Naughty List

If you look closely at the gift above to Riley, you will see two puncture holes from his teeth. This little naughty chicken has been eyeing this present since the minute Santa put it under our tree. Last night, he must have snuck downstairs in the middle of the night because we found this present (with fresh puncture holes in the wrapping) on the landing of our stairs this morning.

I guess the good news is that he came to his senses halfway through his midnight rendezvous and didn't rip the whole present up and eat the bone inside!

Christmas Decor

Tonight, we had a small Christmas gathering with our friends. I love hosting get-togethers and having good food. Here are some pictures I took of our Christmas decorations beforehand.

I bought some berry garland and had some extra so I put it on my 2 tier serving tray. Also found green and red chips at Cost Plus. Baked lots of treats yesterday, too - yum!

I bought a few feet of berry garland and decorated our baskets with it to spice them up a bit for the holiday. I love how it looks!
Here's the cute little Santa statue I got at Pier 1. He's my fave this year.

Spiced up my downstairs bathroom a bit this year - colored light garland around the mirror, a santa-ish hand towel and a wooden wall thingie that I got at Lowe's.

This great find is from Home Depot - a wooden Santa for our front door.

Here are some of our friends getting ready for the White Elephant exchange. Charlie's gift was the biggest hit and got the most laughs out of everyone.

Winter Wonderland

Christmas is coming and it's cold outside - just in time for the holiday! It's 1 degree outside - with a feels like of -9 degrees.

BRRRRRRRRRRRR!

So, to entertain myself, and my loyal blog readers, I have some recent photos to share....

Above, Riley with the Santa wig on...looking like an elderly Marilyn Monroe.
Above, Riley sleeping like a little kid on the couch, all cuddled with a blanky because it's so cold!

We had a special request to post a photo of our Christmas tree and here it is! Ain't she a beaut? 7' Noble Fir...went with the white lights this year. Looks like a Tiny Tim Christmas, but we'll get a few gifts under there soon. Can't wait until we live by family one day and we can keep presents under the tree instead of having to ship them.....

'Tis The Season...

...to dress the dog up for the holidays even though he hates it!