Christmas 2010

We've had a great Christmas...and I can't wait to share it with you..but first I have to tell you about my favorite new recipe!

First, you take a package of bacon and cut each slice into thirds...
Then you open a sleeve of club crackers and break them all in half...

then you wrap each cracker in a slice of bacon. Cover the entire cracker and place the bacon seam side down.

Bake at 350 for about 25 to 30 minutes. I usually drain the grease and turn the bacon about 1/2 way through. When they are good and done you can put them on paper towels to drain and sprinkle them with brown sugar. They are best right out of the oven, but you can totally refrigerate them and re-warm then in the microwave just before you serve them.

Ok, now on to Christmas week. For us, things started off a little rough. We got a call about 11 Monday morning that our dear friends daughter had collapsed at school and was on her way to Little Rock with a brain tumor. So Bran and I hopped in the car, dropped our boys with "grandma" Linda and headed to Little Rock.

We ended up staying in Little Rock till Wednesday night after surgery, but thankfully we left with joy in our hearts that Kyle was well her way to full recovery.

I did go back out after we got the boys home from Mema and Papas. I got everything I could at Wal-Mart, but that still left me with quite a bit of "finish up" shopping to do on Thursday.

We got a special treat Thursday night. Aunt Ally brought her guy Steven over for us to meet. We are all going to be part of their wedding in July, so it was about time we got to know him a little! Of course Dad and Pam came too.

We played CatchPhrase

Aunt Ally was on a team with my boys...and I'm a little embarrassed to say...they actually beat the "grow-ups" a time or 2.

We actually got to spend Christmas Eve in Harrison this year. Aunt Connie and Uncle Lonny always invite us, but we never get to go since they usually invite us for Christmas day. We took Grandma with us and Trav and Steph were just a few minutes behind us.

Aaron's pit puppy didn't need the boys to play with him...he just hung from this rope for a good 10 minutes at a time.

Bran tried his hand at Aunt Connie's harp.

That's Aaron's daughter Shalyn on the left. (that's the back of Ri's head)

Lunch was wonderful...just looking at those roasted sweet potato's will force me to go make some as soon as I'm done posting!

Now we come to Christmas morning. You know your kids are getting older when you have to turn on Christmas music really loud to get them to wake up at 9:45! And just in time...Mema and Papa arrived about 10:15.

The boys got an XBox 360 with Kinect and a new mini fridge from Mema and Papa...now they have a real "boy cave" in their living room! As usual, we ended the night at the movies. This year we watched Gulliver's Travels.

Well, that about does it for Christmas! (Oh, since we were in Little Rock we missed Christmas dinner with my family-so no pictures)