Christmas Celebration

On Monday, we finished baking the last of our Christmas cookies . . . whew!  I’ve had enough baking for awhile!  Once these cookies are all gone, the boys are going to have to make due with store-bought for awhile!  Nicolas was my helper, and then he made another batch of his chocolate-covered pretzels.  They turned out really well!

We still have a ton of pretzels left (bought the big container at Sam’s Club!), so I’ll have to pick up some more chocolate for him.

With the baking done, all that was left was our Christmas dinners to prepare.  Our Christmas Eve dinner was the traditional Mills meal – ham & cheesy potatoes, while our Christmas Day dinner was the traditional Gimmarro meal – ravioli with meatballs and braciole (rolled pork tenderloin, cooked in the spaghetti sauce) . . . with enough leftovers from both to feed us for a week!

But first there was breakfast . . . Nicolas wanted red and green waffles!

 

Tom was on duty, so while he was out “working”, the boys and I cooked and watched Christmas movies!  I also finally took some pictures of our inside decorations.

Our stockings,

 

and our Christmas card collection.

 

 

The weather has been beautiful all week, and the wind died down enough on Christmas Eve for us to have our dinner outside.

After dinner, the boys each opened one present . . .

 

 

 

and then got dressed for 8pm (midnight?) Mass.

They clean up up pretty well!

After mass, we finished our Christmas Eve celebration with red velvet cake while we watched The Polar Express . . . then it was off to bed to wait for Santa!

We didn’t buy a lot of presents, but their big items are more event-related -- Nicolas has his heart set on going to the Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction in Scotsdale next month, so we got week-long passes for him and Tom, and Bryce picked out a Phoenix Suns games that he wants us to go to in February.

But, they still had a few gifts to open on Christmas morning!

 

Even Casey got in on the action!  She was so excited!

 

Once the presents were opened, we had another yummy breakfast before Tom went back on duty and the boys and I watched more Christmas movies.  The wind never settled down on Wednesday, so even with the sun, it was a little chillier – only about 68 degrees!

 

 

 

 

So, that wraps up our 2nd Christmas on the road . . . it’s definitely different to be away from the rest of our families during the holidays, but maintaining some of the same traditions keeps us in tune, and skype keeps us in touch!  Bryce thinks we should have had a little snow, but I got my fill in Flagstaff last week!

Merry Christmas everyone!