Ahhhh Christmas

December is such a busy month; but, by far one of the best months of the year.
It's a month were I step outside the box that I am so familiar with and embrace others.
One of the highlights of the month was spending time with my blog friend Holly. What a breath of fresh air...their family is soooo...functional. They are awesome. I have never seen a family work together as they did, I was more than impressed. We three girls baked cookies while the guys went out and hunted for supper (at the nearest Chili's hee hee). Actually, I must confess...little Kylie and I created cookie dough under the supervision of Holly, and while I would like to say I baked cookies, I actually baked one sheet and forgot all about them...uh...leaving the rest for Holly to follow up on. lol She's awesome! Then, I was introduced to a game called Whodunnit? I think that is what it was called anyway. It was so much fun...could have gone for another round, but it was late, so I took the kids up on a game in the morning, then was interrupted by the lovliest breakfast omelet...really, it was worth remembering. mmm mmm mmm I took my fancy plastic camera for cookie baking pictures, but forgot to take them; however, Kylie created the following picture which expressed our awesome time better than any Kodak film could.

Smith family: thanks for allowing me to share a piece of Christmas with you.

From there, I finally got into the Christmas spirit and did some mild home decor.
I decorated my mantel

The Christmas tree to the left is the only one my cats will allow in the house; any tree (or anything else in the plant family) will be chewed, and ornaments will be used for kitty batting practice.

And I decorated my windows (I had one of those battery operated candelsticks in each window...my godson's spent last weekend with me and as they drove up, one of them said "dad, is Aunt Katie Jewish"...I thought that was so cute, so I told him...nope...Aunt Katie is just waiting for her man to come so she leaves her candles burning in EVERY window so he doesn't miss it.)

ooooh...my Simon is on the couch...I just noticed. Any ideas on how to hide the cord?

I also decorated my entertainment center, but who wants to see a tv.

My delightful overnight with the boys consisted of dinner and all night at a Nickel-A-Play where we shot up Villain's, raced motorcycles, race cars, and spent lots of money trying to win cheesy plastic toys (and one "holiday assorted candle"), and watching movies well past midnight (uhh, well, I fell asleep watching The Underdog, but they were up). The next morning we went to breakfast where I was entertained for the next hour and a half with verbal replays of the first movie we watched, interesting comic reliefs involving omelet surgery and talking muffins, and plenty of giggles. I must say, I had a blast.

I picked up my niece and great niece for Christmas. Ahhhhh White Christmas. It was so BEAUTIFUL...big giant white fluffy snowflakes! No snow on Christmas Eve...not even remnants, but Christmas morning I had a good six inches on my balcony. So, I didn't house hop this year ('cause I live in Colorado without 4-wheel drive...yeah...next time); I just stayed home by the fire with my hot chocolate and my nieces and watched Christmas movies, read the Christmas story (the real Christmas story), and sang Christmas songs.
Anika hanging out with me as I watch Home Alone.

Even one of my kitties was in the Christmas spirit...maybe she just liked my scarf.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!