Browsing Category

friends

Blog, christmas, Family, friends, holidays, kids

Our Christmas Mess


Every year, the Tuckahoe/Lee gang get together for an annual Christmas cookie baking/decorating night. This year it finally got a much needed, very appropriate name: Our Christmas Mess. With 10 Tuckahoe children 5 and under, things tend to get messy. It has been so much fun adding new kids to the tradition each year. The Lovings had the dining room decked out for this special event. I only wish a camera could have captured the beauty. Perhaps Maggi got some good ones.

 Liam and Penelope are ready to begin
little friends
boy cutting sugar cookies
    christmas cookies
Reading time with Grandmamie. I worry that she won’t know how to interact with the new grandchild on the way.
woman reading to kids

 

Now the fun part! Time to decorate! We have a good amount of creativity in our group.
putting icing on cookie

 

boy decorating christmas sugar cookie

 

Kingston made a penguin. Maybe Kim helped a little?
toddler boy showing cookie
 Even though she didn’t participate, she still got to wear some festive clothes and look like a doll baby!
dad and baby
The boys loved every bit of it.
little boy showing snowman cookie

 

We made Peter Pan!
liam 2
colorful icing

 

He was excited about our Captain America shield
mom and boy
Maggi is very serious about making a special man every year. She has already made a Han Solo before, but this year he was also accompanied by a Luke Skywalker, (made by me), and 2 Darth Vaders (made by Molli and PJ)
best friends
I guess we all had the minion idea at the same time.
my friends
Part of our tradition is to get pictures of all the cookies when they are done and a big group shot of all of us with the cookies. This year, the tradition ended. Most of the group went in the living room to watch The Muppet Christmas movie, while the slightly more mature group sat in the dining room, spending some quality time together.
decorated christmas sugar cookies

 

star wars cookies
After the movie ended, I asked Liam what he thought about it (because although I didn’t directly say it, you should know that I did not watch the movie with them.) Liams response–“it was super duper long! *sigh*”
 
I guess he won’t be wanting to watch that one again any time soon. 
 
We had such a fun night with people who are so dear to us. I can’t wait to see the pictures Maggi took! Thanks to the Lovings for allowing us to join in. And for the yummy, yummy chili!

 

Blog, christmas, Family, friends, holidays, kids

Never Enough Lights, baby!


Because I never did a post about last weekend, I’ll go ahead and wrap up this week with a few pictures before I write about our big cookie making extravaganza!

We visited the “Never Enough Lights” house in O’Fallon. This guy totally goes all out with his decorations. It’s all programmed to Christmas music. It’s always really fun to watch.
christmas decorations
crazy christmas lights house decoration

Afterwards we went to the Harrelson’s house. We learned some very amazing, exciting news!! Tim and Stef are having a baby!!! I thought it was exciting when she got married. But things just got kicked up a notch! I’m already dreaming up some homemade baby gifts for Baby Pip 🙂

pregnancy announcement
The boys are loving anything and everything craft related lately. I’m not big into putting a lot of time or money preparing things for them to do–which forces me to try to be creative. And let’s just say that my creativity gene isn’t too big. So we made some snowmen pictures. They loved it.
Liam’s has a “nightcap” and two ice cream cones on his head.
boy and snowman drawing
Kai’s looks punk rock. I love his coloring style lately. Just random colored scribbles.
little boy snowman craft
Kingston enjoys it–even if I do most of the work for him.
diy christmas crafts for kids
In the meantime, someone is getting big and thinks it’s great that she can pull herself up.
cute baby

And she found a new facial expression that I love!

funny baby girl

By the way, if you’re looking for a great cold weather meal, try making this pretzel bread bowl recipe and filling it up with your favorite soup. I made them with some delicious cheesy potato soup. The combination was amazing! And if you have leftover bread bowls, you can broil them in the oven the next day to revive that good, fresh taste.
Coming up next–cookie decorating pictures galore!