Santa 2011

 The girls got Santa's plate ready for him!

 Gracie's says his favorite cookies is chocolate chip. We left him some milk and his reindeer some oats. And Gracie drew him a picture (Christmas tree - so cute!)

 Oh Evie! Got a Beaker aka Mee Mee puppet! How did Santa know that is your favorite You Tube video!

 And your favorite princess Snow White!

 Ahh. Gracie can breathe a littler easier these days after Santa fulfilled her deepest desire - a jack in the box.

Oh and we can't forget about the Mommy and baby penguins!

 Oh my goodness! Chocolate Santas!

Evie digging deep! We enjoyed a brunch together then very quickly nap time came. I took down our very dead Christmas tree and then we brought in and sorted through all the new toys. Very quickly our house turned into a toy box. Lastly, we had a steak, baked potato and corn supper with candlelight and Christmas music playing lightly in the background. It was so elegant as we sat in a pile of toys with Gracie getting yelled at constantly to quit dancing and sit down and eat and Evie spitting food on the floor and constantly asking to get down. Elegant quickly turned into chaos. But all complaining aside, I couldn't be more thankful for my busy girls and Christmas is a great time to remember all the blessings you have. So, hoping next year will bring many more blessings to us as well as our family and friends. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hofmeister Family Christmas 2011

 Love this picture! The Hofmeister girls - Gracie, Evie, and Piper!

 Gracie is finally to the age where she will show you what she got! At age 4 there is a definite growing up characteristic attached. Kinda makes me sad and glad all in one.

 Evie trying to tear open her gift!

 We had to take several shots because Evie was not cooperating. This is funny cause a couple shot got the tree falling over in the background and by the end of taking pictures everyone about had enough!

 Ok. It'll have to do. There will never be a totally wonderful picture with so many little girls.

 Grandpa and Grandma Hofmeister with the girls.

 Then we had the girls show us some of their dance moves.

And finally, it was beat the crap out of the snowman time. The girls had great fun playing with Piper and we enjoyed everyone's company. We had yummy turkey and noodles for supper and Gracie was surprised with a pumpkin pie - her favorite! Another great Christmas...until next year.

Lund Family Christmas 2011

 This years Christmas competition was gingerbread houses. These are our entries starting from top left is Evie's, mine, Hoff's, and Gracie's. They were fun to make, but it was messy. Also, if we ever do this again, I will have to get fresh candy for the girls...they kept wanting to eat year old candy.

 All of the entries. The winner was Mom (church), followed by Dad (left of church) then Amanda and I tied for third, but everyone did a very good job.

 Colleen dressed up for the occasion this year :)

 Clint, Amanda, Lane and Kade

 Our best picture after taking like 50 (and I'm not kidding) Hoff's just going to have to look like he's going to kill someone - hahaha.

 Group picture!

 Sorry, out of order but Evie did real well at opening gifts!

 Of course Santa made an appearance with his trash bag of goodies :) Evie was scared to death, but mustered up enough courage to go get her gifts from him.

 Papa and Grandma Jo with the kiddos - good one guys!

And Gracie with her American girl! It was so much fun hanging out with everyone! We had appetizers and soup to eat and so much goodies. I think I've gained 10 lbs this weekend. The kids had a lot of fun playing with one another and we had fun making cat ornaments (pintrest) and playing games. Great Christmas; can't wait til next year!

Christmas Cookies

 As you may know, Gracie LOVES to help me bake. I got a crazy idea that I had to make 4 different kinds of cookies in 1 day! Let me just tell you, that's a lot of work and time consuming and fattening. Gracie is a natural in the kitchen.

 Tada the cookies are ready to be put into the oven!

 I think this is the real reason why she likes to help me; she sneaks bites and bites, and bites.

 Mom got the girls their cute aprons for their birthdays this year and so I wanted to get a picture of us cooking in them.  We were making the chocolate chip cookies here.

Evie likes to help too, but is usually interested cause Gracie is. Her level of attention isn't quite where it needs to be to finish a batch, but she has fun while it lasts and then goes and makes a mess out of the flour.

Grandpa and Grandma Lund's Christmas 2011

 I was finally able to make it to the Lund Christmas! Between snow storms and work, I wasn't able to make it for the last couple years! This year, EVERYBODY made it! We decided to celebrate early - December 10, so that everyone could come and snow would not be a factor! Grandma, of course, went above and beyond. Here she's cutting up her pork loin! We had a five star meal!

 Sheila got all the kids occupied coloring Christmas pictures!

 The table filled up the whole basement side and was so festively decorated!

 Grandpa and Grandma with the Grandkids.

 Grandpa and Grandma with the Great Grandkids!

 Our Family.

 Ok...lets add the rest of the clan.

 Sheila did a great job helping organize the festivities and I know she helped with the cooking!

 Ok...ready for it...big group shot! Wow! Glad we got it!

Look at this plate full of delishousness! Grandma had cookies, angel food cake, rice krispie ice cream dessert, and a chocolate peanut ice cream dessert! She never disappoints. We played Christmas bingo and enjoyed each others company. Many great gifts were received and lots of Grandma's famous yummy rolls comsumed! I really enjoyed visiting with and seeing everybody. It was a great Christmas!

My Tree

Our beautiful illuminating tree - while white lights are very pretty, we just have to have the colored!

 This is probably my favorite - a silver church and you can put a light in it to make it glow!

 I also really like this pinecone.

 I got some vintage inspired bulbs last year on clearance that I really love.

 And you gotta have the abominable snowman!

 Grandma Werts handmade Santa Claus - Love him!

 My favorite brand of ornaments is Old World Christmas - so sparkly!

As long as it glistens or sparkles - its got a spot on my tree :)