Christmas Party Time...

Matt and I hosted our annual Christmas party this year. Every year (except last) we have family and friends over. Of course, every year we have yummy food and fun games and prizes. We opted to have a party for the grown-ups only this year. We just don't have enough room for everyone and their children. I actually enjoyed it this way - I wasn't having to worry about spilled juice or choking hazards or Madeline eating too many cookies :) So, anyway, this year we had our annual Christmas quiz. This time we added a challenge of untangling a string of lights. The big winner was Holly. (Gabe and Jason were the runners-up). Unfortunately, I missed several good photo ops. of our games. Anyway, we had a dirty santa gift card exchange too. I really liked the gift being a gift card. It was a lot of fun. I won a gift card to Ross - I can't wait to go there!! Of course, we had ESPN on the t.v. watching Sam Bradford win the Heisman! :) Then we had a UFC fight on. So, the party had a little something for every taste :) I really had a good time and had fun getting a chance to catch up with some old friends!! Here are a few pictures from the party....

Everyone is waiting to see who would win the Heisman...

It is Sam Bradford - Go Sooners!!

Debo and Shelly during the dirty santa gift exchange...

Matt talking to Jason, Rachel and Debo...

Matt won a gift card to GNC...

Holly and Tony enjoying the party food...

Tony, Stu and Crystal catching up...

My little Philip had fun too!

My cousin Christy loved holding Philip during the party.

Melissa getting some food...

A Gingerbread House

I bought a gingerbread house kit for the girls and I to decorate for the first time this year. They were very excited about this project. I wasn't really sure how it would go but it ended up going pretty smoothly. I just bought one of those little kits from Wal-Mart. I wish there would've been a little more variety in the types of candy, but it turned out pretty cute anyway. My one complaint would be that the frosting was very thick and was difficult to pipe onto the pieces neatly. The girls really enjoyed tasting the candy and putting it on the house. Madeline ask when we got to eat it and I just told her that you don't eat them. I couldn't imagine eating that thing - it's as hard as a rock!! :)

Thanksgiving "Party Pics" 2008

Here are some snapshots of our Thanksgiving dinner....

Preparing for Thanksgiving Dinner 2008

We invited my side of the family over for Thanksgiving dinner again this year. I actually really enjoy making Thanksgiving dinner. It's a lot of work, but it's fun for me. This year, we had lunch at Matt's parents house at noon so I got a break from my cooking for a couple of hours. After lunch, it was back home to finish the dinner. This year Matt and I bought a 22 pound turkey!! Yep, it was huge!! It turned out very tasty and wasn't dry at all. So, anyway, I got up early on Thanksgiving and had a little helper named Madeline. I really thought Susanna was going to be more interested in helping me b/c she always wants to watch me cook dinner. But no, Susanna wanted to watch her "shows" so Madeline helped me. She really likes to do whatever she can - especially if it involves pouring, stirring or spreading :) This year's menu included turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing (this didn't turn out so good), rolls, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, broccoli cheese casserole (Mel made this), and sweet carrots. We had a veggie tray, tortilla rolls and chips and dip too. So, needless to say, there were TONS of leftovers. Oh yeah, I made two pies also - a Turtle Pumpkin Pie (pumpkin pie with caramel and pecans) and a Chocolate Peppermint Pie. We all had a really nice time and plenty to eat.

5 Things I'm Thankful For:
1.) That Matt agreed to have a 3rd baby and now I have my sweet little Philip!
2.) That I have two super cute, adorable, sweet, daughters!
3.) That I'm married to Matthew Kendall. I'm so proud of him and ALL of the work he
has been doing in school these past few years. He's awesome!
4.) That I found a job I enjoy where I can get benefits and only work 16 hours a week!
5.) The memories I have of my mother - One day I'm going to have to make a post just for her. She was a great mother and I'd like to talk more about her sometime.

A Visit to See Santa

On the night before Thanksgiving we took the girls to visit Santa at the Bass Pro Shops. This year they have a Santa Wonderland where kids can visit Santa and have a FREE picture made with him. This was a really nice service - the kids got to talk to Santa and tell him what they wanted and we got 3 pictures, all for free. Susanna was a little nervous and didn't really have much to say. And Madeline was a little shy too. But they all sat on his lap and no one cried! We went on a weeknight and there wasn't anyone in line. The kids got to shoot BB guns at targets (actually, they were lasered) and they saw a really nice train table. The girls really enjoyed looking at the huge fish tank. We really had a nice time and it was definitely something I would recommend to anyone with kids!! It was much better and more exciting than the mall!!

The Start of Our Holidays...

The first thing we did to start our Thanksgiving weekend was for daddy to put up our Christmas lights. We took advantage of a really nice day to do this - no wind or cold temperatures. Daddy had tons of lights to choose from since I bought several strands from the after Christmas clearance at Target last year. We had one less tree this year to decorate since the ice storm last December killed it :) The lights turned out very pretty. I'm going to have to get a picture of the entire cul-de-sac. Every house on our cul-de-sac has lights up - it's so pretty.