I’m so sorry, I lost the original post I had up last night and I had to re-do this entire thing over again and re-post it. Long story not worth typing, just please bear with me. This is a long one covering 3 days, so I tried to break it up with some pictures to see if that would help with the endless assault of words. If you still find yourself nodding off and cursing my very blog existence I am sorry, but if you skip to the end you will miss all of the scintillating details of my childrens new pajamas. We’re talking Hot, Riveting, Flannel Action!

When D was just a baby, Grammy Lesa gave him, and later on C, new pajamas each Christmas Eve to open up and then wear to bed that night. We have continued on with this fun Christmas tradition every year, and this one wasn’t any different. I have usually ended up buying my kids pajamas, but several times I was able to sew them, and this year was one of those years. I’m not quite sure how I managed to make 8 pairs of pajama pants, but I did it, and even made C and the four little ones matching tops. I bought them long sleeved tops and just appliqued a piece of the fabric onto the front from the pants that I had made them, and it turned out wonderfully, and looked really cute on them too. I personally love flannel and how snuggly soft and warm it is, what’s better than that on a cold winter night? We all opened our jammies, got into them and then read the story of Christ’s birth from the Bible. After discussing with the kids the meaning of Christmas and such we then read the rest of our Christmas books and then tucked the kids into bed. D and C were visiting with my ex’s fam for a Christmas Eve party and didn’t get home until late, so we had them open their new jammies when they got home and then got them to bed as well. I posted some pictures in the gallery, but Craig used the video camera for most of the day, although we still managed to get a few shots with my camera in between.

Craig and I then started in on the last of the wrapping, assembling presents and getting everything ready for the next morning. We decided to assemble toys, put batteries in, and cut the plastic ties from as many items as we could to make Christmas morning go as smoothly as possible, and it really worked out great for us. We still wrapped everything, as per my side of the family’s tradition, but we also used several of those large plastic gift bags made for bikes and awkward sized gifts, and it made it a lot easier on everone. Have you ever tried to assemble a mountain of kids toys with small children trying to be your “helpers”? It never works, and more often than not those 4 micrscopic screws that are imperative to assemble the last toy inevitably get lost, so we were very pleased with how this new approach worked for us. I was pleased with how quickly we were able to get everything done, under the tree, and all of the stockings filled as well. Each stocking had a few pieces of chocolate, a Clementine and some nuts. My parents used to put mixed nuts into ours, but we changed it up a little for our family and use pistachios instead since they’re the favorite over here.

We had a lovely time opening presents, and Craig and I both managed to sneak in several surprises for each other too. The kids loved all of their gifts, and after going through and picking up all of the wrapping paper and garbage, we just sat back and let the kids play and have a great time. So all in all we had a lovely and peaceful Christmas Day, and really just enjoyed being together. On Boxing Day my Mom and Dad came out to have Christmas with us and Heidi was also able to come too since Gary had to be back at work that day. We opened up some more presents, let the kids play and we just had a nice time relaxing and chatting. We then dug into the dinner we had all pitched in to prepare, and it was all very delicious. It was originally planned to have a home made perogie extravaganza, but after Heidi and I discussed it I felt that we should postpone it until next year so that I could avoid over doing it while I’m pregnant. I’m not 22 anymore (Gasp! What!?! Not 22!?! Are you sure?!) and I also have 6 other children and a husband to think about, so we all felt it was a good idea to wait until next year for the perogie fun. I tried really hard this year not to overdo it and go overboard with Christmas preparations, and I think I managed to do allright and not knock myself out and put any undue stress on myself and this baby. You know how OCD I can get, it’s not pretty, so that was quite an undertaking in and of itself.

So we had a wonderful Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and I am just so truly grateful for all of our family and their love and kindness. We are so gratful for our Mammy, Pappy, Grandma, Grandpa, Grammy, Grampa, our super fun Aunties and Uncles, the even more fun cousins, and our in-laws and relatives too! We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, and we are truly grateful for all of you in our lives, thankyou and much love to all of you!

   May this joyous season be a happy one for all of you, and may the spirit of the season be with you on this day. We want to wish all of our family, friends, and loved ones near and far from us, a very Merry Christmas and many blessings in the New Year. Much love from our family to yours, and know that you are never far from our thoughts.

   (Adeste Fidelis (O, Come All Ye Faithful) is one of my favorite Christmas carols, it’s simple, beautiful, and for me brings the Christmas spirit.)

   This morning G decided to pour pancake syrup onto the table, then get up onto the table and dance in it as well as smear it all over herself. I had only turned my back for a second to do some dishes, and she was sitting at her place at the table right behind me finishing her breakfast. The other kids were done and had gone to get dressed and she’s usually the last one at the table most mornings. Thankfully I was able to get it out of her hair and stuff, but I had to laugh at how funny she looked as she gleefully danced in the syrup in her bare feet, clapping her little hands with such joy on her naughty little face. I couldn’t even muster a firm scolding , I was laughing too hard at her little wickiness as well as her funny little syrup dance. How could I be mad when dancing in pancake syrup gives her that much happiness?

   Craig arrived back from D.C. yesterday afternoon, and while we were happy he was able to get all of Holly’s gifts to her in time for Christmas, we were happy to have him home again. We decided to go out for an impromptu date that night, and had Dylan watch the little ones after we put them to bed. This way, he would be more amiable to babysitting for us again, and we could go out and not worry that the kids had ganged up on Dylan and had him bound and gagged in a closet while they ate all of the ice cream in the freezer. Ok, so we don’t have any ice cream in the freezer right now, but it could happen! At least it does in those “kids rule, adults suck” movies.

   Anyways, we went and saw the movie Casino Royale (with the cell phone set to vibrate in case there was an emergency), and I have to agree with Jeff, the movie was just as he said. I also agree that Daniel Craig makes a very good Bond, and I liked this movie a lot. Enought to watch it once more when it’s out on DVD, but I doubt I would buy it. I found it an entertaining movie, and Daniel Craig is now my favorite Bond. He really made the whole “Bond” thing fresh for me. Anyways, I’m just excited Craig and I actually got to out on a date. We really don’t get to do that very often and this was just what we needed. So I think we will start making a habit out of our late night dates from now on. That is if Dylan will be kind enough to babysit for us again. You do realize he has “mad babysitting skill” don’t you? Frankly I can’t thank him enough.

   On the way to the Family Christmas Dinner tonight we saw three or four police cars parked at a house with all of their lights flashing, and we all wondered aloud what must be going on. Noah had it all figured out because he piped up from the back and said “Maybe they’re having a Disco Dance in the back of their police cars.” Ok, where in the heck did he pick up the phrase “disco dance” and how does he know it involves lots of flashing lights? And when Dylan was saying something about “mice carrying lots of diseases”, Noah agreed with him by saying “Yeah, they carry lots of cheese. They eat a lot!” And Mathes was very vocal the whole way there and kept saying “Mom” to try and get my attention so he could tell me about all of the Christmas lights he was seeing. Just as we were driving past the clinic, he began calling me again.

Mathes-”mom…..mom….Mom….MOM!” 

Me- “Yes Mathes, what?

“Mathes- “Chicken Butt!” and then began to giggle.

Sadly in our family it’s actually kind of another way (albeit a wierd one) of saying “I love you” but I’m not quite sure how it started. Yeah, I know, we’re so classy it’s probably killing you, right? We’re so refined!

   I recently ordered a pair of maternity jeans from a company I have never heard of, but thought they looked pretty good and worth a try. The jeans arrived within three days of my order, and they were even better than I expected. They have the roll panel I have been dying to try, and were a better price than Old Navy and Gap’s maternity jeans too. And the best part of all (in my opinion) was that they were extremely flattering, especially from “behind”, and we all know how self concious you can feel when pregnant from any angle, so this is was the icing on the cake! I immediately fired off a very happy and complimentary email yesterday telling them thankyou and how great the jeans were and that I would be buying more for sure. Lo and behold, today I got a call from the company, and they were calling to tell ME thankyou, and that they really appreciated my kind words, that I took the time to email them, and to be sure and wait for the free shipping offer coming to me in the mail before I ordered any more items so that I would get an even better deal. How cool are they! So while I can only speak about their jeans, I’m dying to try out their maternity tops too. They’re a relatively small company, but I think they’re maternity jeans rock, and I now know they also care about their customers too. So check out www.mysticclothing.com if you want to see what they have.

P.S. Don’t forget to post your recipes or email them to me to post here!

1 day-old loaf French bread, cut into 12 1-inch thick slices

5 eggs, lightly beaten

2 1/4 cups milk

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 - 3/4 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

   Arrange bread slices in a buttered (or greased) 13×9×2 baking dish. In a bowl combine the eggs, milk, 3/4 cup brown sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon. Pour evenly over the bread making sure to get the edges of the pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least 8 hours. Remove from fridge 30 minutes before baking and flip each slice of bread over. This is the secret to making sure you don’t end up with an eggy-soggy bottom after it’s baked. Sprinkle pecans over top of bread slices. Combine melted butter and 1/4 cup brown sugar and drizzle over the entire top. Bake, uncovered, @ 400 degrees F for 30-35 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve hot with or without syrup. Yield: 6-8 servings

   When I made this I cubed my bread since my French bread was several days old and quite dry and hard. If your French bread is softer then you can easily wedge all 12 slices into the pan, but mine was too dry. If you do cube your bread, instead of flipping before baking just take a large spoon and kind of turn and flip the cubed bread in sections. I almost lightly mixed it, but flipped it as best I could as cubed bread. This was a HUGE success, and I will likely be making this for breakfast Christmas morning, it was truly delicious! And it was yummy with and without syrup, so it can work for those with or without a sweet tooth. Overall I loved it, and I am thrilled to have finally found a baked French Toast casserole that I love. A few of the others I have tried were not very good, but this one is fantastic! And don’t forget to post YOUR recipes, or email them to me and I will post it here for you. Enjoy!

   With Christmas fast approaching I get more and more in the holiday baking mood (heck I just love cooking and baking no matter what time of year), and I am so excited to try out some of the new recipes I have come across, as well as make some of my favorites that are tried and true. I have several favorite recipes that are always well recieved by both family and friends, so I wondered if any of you have any favorite recipes that you would like to share, and if so, post it on you blog and either leave a note in my comments to come and check it out, or you can email it to me and I will post it on my site with your name on the recipe. You can have 1 or 100 recipes, as many as you would like, there is no limit. And they don’t have to be holiday recipes, just favorites of any kind.

   Here are a few of mine: Mammy’s Sugar Cookies, Cookie Cutter Cookies, Mammy’s Ginger Cookies, Spiced Nuts, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, Texas Sheet Cake, Tangy Beef Stroganoff, Pork Milanese, Cranberry Pecan Pie, Quick Italian Hot Rolls, and Pecan French Toast Bake just to name a few. I will be adding the recipes for these in the coming weeks, and I am looking forward to seeing what some of your favorites are. And there isn’t a time limit to any of this, I just I love swapping recipes, it’s so fun to see what everyone else is cooking too!

   Last night was our Ward Christmas Party, we had a lot of fun and I was very impressed with it all. Instead of one huge serving table, they had a single table at the end of each long row of tables set up to serve just that table. We had four huge rows of tables, and yet due to this ingenius system they were able to get everyone in the entire place served and seated in a matter of 10 minutes, no joke. They served baked ham slices, baked potatoes, baked beans, rolls and a green salad with your choice of dressing, and every two feet on the long rows of tables was a stick of butter and a large bowl of sour cream to top your potato and stuff. Dessert was several different kinds of sheet cakes and little bowls of sugar free pudding for the diabetics in our ward.

   It was all really hearty and delicious, and I am going to have to get the baked bean recipe, it was so good with the ham! Afterwards they had a short program, and I DO mean short! They only had five short numbers, and they were all really cute and fun, and no one had to leave with their screaming child in the middle of it all since it held all of the kids attention, and then was over really fast. So for those of you that have suffered through the hour-plus long Christmas programs with small children (and sometimes suffered even without them….) my thoughts were with you last night as we actually sat with our kids and enjoyed our evening. Really, someone needs to send a special memo out to other ward comittees with a reminder that ward Chrsitmas parties are for everyone to enjoy, families and the elderly. They DO NOT need to be hours long in order to be a good program! Psst! Pass it on….

   I took D and C with me to see the USU Symphony Orchestra last night when they played at the Ellen Eccles Theater. We left a little early so we could stop off and visit with Mark, Mel and W who ended up going to Heidi and Gary’s, where Mammy and Pappy showed up later as well, so we got to see almost everyone. Wellington is still as cute as ever, and still looks just like Mel when you see him in real life, but just like Mark when you see him in pictures, he is such an adorable little guy. And Gray is all smiles, and loves to see EVERYTHING that is going on around him, and it won’t be long until he is running right behind the other kids. We also got to see L’s new room all carpeted and just about finished, which L was all smiles about. The two new rooms are so nice, Gary did a great job.

We got changed into our nice Sunday clothes for the concert, and left about 15 minutes before it was supposed to start. I had already bought our tickets onlince so all I had to do was pick them at at the box office as we walked in, and we were set. It was general seating so we were able to pick our own seats, and the theater was only about 3/4 full, so it wasn’t hard to find a great spot to sit. The music was beautiful, and I enjoyed it all quite a bit, but all three of us agreed our absolute favorite was the guest cellist Ann Francis. She was spectacular! It was such a treat to be able to see and hear her play. The guest violinist was pretty good, but Ann Francis blew him out of the water the first minute into her first piece, it was incredible.

Afterwards we went back to Heidi’s to change back into comfier clothes, and a little bit more visiting, and then headed for home. I only recently discovered the site online that has all of the local events listed, and that was where I found out all of the info on the Nutcracker and this Sympnohy event as well. There are several more fun events in the coming months that I plan on attending with my husband or children depending on who’s the most interested to go. In February it’s The Pirated of Penzance, and in March the Irish dancers will be performing, and I am already making plans for both of those with a bunch of people that are just as excited as I am to go. It’s all so fun that I get to go and to share all of it with my husband, children and family. I am enjoying it all now since I will be curtailing a lot of these activites after the baby arrives, but I can jump right back in once the little one isn’t quite so little anymore.