Christmas

the whole family minus Dustin and Meagan (we missed you guys!) my little elf

Christmas Eve with Great Grandma and Grandpa Glauser

Boys in their matching camo pajamas

Santa Comes Early

Santa came to our house early since we're leaving for Utah in the morning! It was a short day at school today so we woke them up early before Matt left for work. Despite their surprise and excitement, they opted to still go to school. After all, who wants to miss Polar Express Day? So we played for a little while, then got dressed and sent them on their way while Lydia, Sawyer and I packed for our trip...or tried to anyway.

Thanksgiving Getaway

Seriously, one of our favorite Thanksgivings, ever.

It was one of those years we weren't leaving town, and didn't have anyone coming to visit. We decided we've stayed home and cooked our own Thanksgiving Dinner enough times and it was time to do something different. We got a hotel in downtown Houston, went to the Thanksgiving Day Parade, got takeout for dinner, and had such a great little vacation!

Eating our pumpkin pie by the outdoor pool.

Although it was warm on Thanksgiving, the day after was significantly colder. It was the best of both worlds. We swam on Thanksgiving, and ice skated the next day.

halloween weekend

All ready for the ward Trunk or Treat! Garrett's a Ninja, Ethan's a vampire ghost (his own creation), Lydia's a princess that didn't want to wear her crown (such a modest princess) and Sawyer's the cutest baby lion I've ever seen.

Picking Pumpkins

Ward Trunk or Treat Saturday Night. Sawyer and I sat in the back of the Sequoia to pass out candy. Sawyer found the bag and started throwing the candy at everyone that came by. It was hilarious.

Christmas 2009

Hope yours was merry and bright!

Christmas Sunday

Merry Christmas

Halloween 2009

Happy Chocolate Day

It's all about the food.

Chocolate Berry Crepes

1 1/2 cups flour

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups milk

2 Tbsp melted butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1. Mix first 4 ingredients in bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients with electric mixer until smooth.

2. Lightly butter small 6 inch skillet and heat over medium heat until bubbly.

3. For each crepe, pour 1/8-1/4 cup batter into skillet. Immediately rotate skillet until thin layer of batter covers bottom. Cook until lightly brown. Run spatula around edge until loose. Flip crepe and cook other side until light brown. Repeat for remaining batter.

4. Spread whipped cream down the middle of the crepe. Fill with raspberries and/or chopped strawberries. Roll, and top with melted chocolate or chocolate berry sauce*, powdered sugar, and of course, more berries.

~~~

Chocolate Berry Sauce

semi sweet ( or mik chocolate, if that's more your thing) baking chocolate or chocolate chips

raspberries and/or strawberries, pureed

milk

sugar to taste

Mix all ingredients in saucepan (eyeball all of it) and gently heat until melted and smooth.

a rustic texas christmas

Here it is, the Christmas post.

I have few words to say really...except that it was quite possibly the most perfect thing our little family could have done for Christmas this year.

We cut down a tree

did a little of thisand a little of thatwith a lot of up and down on thistreasured moments like these

and spent a little more time here

It was our own little slice of heaven.

Should you find yourself driving through Texas on Christmas Eve...

keep an eye out for these. (This would have been so much better if it had been one of those trucks I see with horns on the front. Still, the kids were filled with excitement at spying the big guy himself until the excitement turned frantic at the thought of Santa getting to the cabin before we did. We assured them that we had plenty of time since Santa still had to get the blue bullet home and the sleigh packed up.)

off we go...

A bout with the flu yesterday threatened to ruin our plans for a Rustic Texas Christmas, but things are looking up today. We've got Christmas all packed up and are just about ready to go.

3 days with nothing but the trees, the local animals, the dirt, the hot tub, and my little family in the middle of nowhere- I can't wait!

Enjoy your Christmas, wherever you are.

(And thanks for the wonderful idea, Kristin!)

a little story

the beginning

the middle

the end

ice skating with Grandma

To our good forture, we were in the middle of a cold front on this particular weekend in early December, so it really was cold enough to pretend like we were somewhere they don't have to make their own ice.

Darn photobucket...here's a glimpse of the fun minus the slideshow.