Review of Christmas activities

Friday, December 21

Tonight was the Black Family Christmas party. This party is the best of all parties because Uncle Brent makes the best appetizers!! There was lots of yummy food (the Black family loves to eat!!), and a good program (well, at least the part we were there for. Mike had to go to work, so we left earlier than everyone else). Our part of the program was about angels. We sang a song that I can't remember at the moment, and then Adam played a video that Megan's sister's husband (Case) made about Porter, an amazing angel in our life. It was great!
The coolest part was that Rudolf came to the party!! He was so cute with all the kids, but some of the kids did not know what to think. My kids were ok! (Thank goodness)



Monday, December 24th

Raclette... mmmmm
The Randy Black family has a tradition of eating Raclette every Christmas Eve. We've done it for quite a few years now (I can't remember how long - it's Mike's job to remember things like that). Ok, I'll explain. You take a big hunk of very stinky cheese that will stink up your fridge. Cut it into smaller slices. Then you take a variety of meats (ie: salami-my favorite, beef stick, pepperoni, Canadian bacon). You get a Raclette grill (yes, there is a special appliance to take up more room in your kitchen just for this dish), and place your stinky cheese in the "pan" for the cheese (it goes underneath the flat top), and then your meat on the top. Cook until the meat is yummy and the cheese is melted. We pour our cheese over boiled red potatoes, and put the meat on top. Wikipedia has a rockin' explanation of Raclette: Click here
This year Jenny got to experience this joy with us (and Danny, of course). Once we start eating, I learn that she doesn't really like cheese (who doesn't like cheese?). This is the only thing I have learned about Jenny that is not MTW.

Tuesday, December 25th

Christmas morning

Santa came to our house (kind of a bit of a miracle). We had planned on getting the kids up at 7 am, but we slept in a little, and were woken up by Randy calling to say they were on their way to experience Christmas with us. We always gather together in our bedroom and talk about the reason we celebrate Christmas (we do not, however, read the actual Christmas story-that takes way too long for excited kids). Then we go into the living room to see what Santa brought us. We have asked Santa to not wrap presents that he brings to our house. Instead he places them in designated spots (ie: Daddy gets the recliner, Austin gets the blue chair, etc). We rushed unto the living room, and gushed over the presents Santa brought. Then we started to open our presents that we give to each other. Rachel opened one of hers that was wrapped in a Saltine cracker box (Mike got creative because we were out of other boxes). She takes off the wrapping paper and says (in her MOST excited voice), "AHHH! Crackers!!!!" It was the best thing EVER! I wish I would have gotten it on video, but then I would have been really crushed when it got broken, and all our pictures were lost. (more on that later) The real gift inside that cracker box was a Tennessee Titans Cheerleader outfit. She looks adorable in it. She got out her pom poms (they are Denver's , but that's ok) and did a little cheer-so cute. We ate Monkey Bread (yummy-I'll post the "recipe" later), and played with the toys. Mitchell was pretty disappointed this year because he had an enormous(sp), gigantic box with his name on it, and it turns out all it had was new comforters for his bunk beds. He did not cry, though, to his credit. Austin got a Titan's alarm clock that he was THRILLED about (there have been days when it goes off at 2 am, and he sleeps right through it). Austin and Mitchell both got Lego's from Santa, and we spent a good portion of the middle of the day putting them together. Later on that evening, we went to Randy and Jan's for dinner, and we were a Titans family, everyone had Titan's gear. We were pretty cute if I must say (you will have to picture it in your mind, as, alas, we have no record of the event).