On the Night Before Christmas....

On the night before Christmas, it was a very busy Christmas Eve! John had to work a couple hours. While he was working I did some last minute shopping for him. Later that day, I hurried and finished my neighborhood gifts and visiting teaching gifts/home teaching gifts! John and the girls helped me drop them off before our dinner!

For some of our neighbors, we gave them cookie cutters! On the back of the paper cookie,I wrote, "Cutting out a perfect Christmas wish for your family! Merry Christmas!" We also gave some chocolates away too.



As for John's home teaching families and my visiting teaching sisters, I gave them the following: Cookie dough mix, frosting, and sprinkles. I wrote the following: "Whip up this mix for a wonderful holiday fix. Wishing you a 'rich' holiday season! Merry Christmas!"



Next we opened our last advent gift from John's parents! We have been enjoying Grandma and Grandpa Free's FUN advent Christmas presents these past seven days! The kids have enjoyed the excitement of opening one present a day! Here is the awesome gift list!

Day 1: A Kenny G Christmas CD, which we have played over and over again.



Day 2: A lovely Christmas table cloth which I needed, mine last year ripped a hole.



Day 3: A beautiful Christmas center piece and vanilla cookie candle.



Day 4: A fun 300 piece puzzle and molding clay for the kids!





Day 5: A yummy popcorn cake recipe that included all the ingredients, which we planned on making for a New Year's Eve party.

I snagged this photo of the popcorn cake from my brother in-law Dave! For the recipe I did a stove-top version instead of microwave.



Marshmallow Peppermint Popcorn Cake

5-6 cups of popped popcorn ( about 2 1/2 cups of popcorn kernels)
1 cube of butter
1 bag of miniature marshmallows
1 c. smashed peppermint candy
1 c. peanuts

Melt butter first then add marshmallows in a small sauce pan. Melt the marshmallows then add crushed peppermint candy and peanuts. Stir together until the candy is melted. Pour marshmallow, candy, and peanut mixture over popcorn and mix well. Grease an angel food cake pan with some cooking spray and fill it will the popcorn mixture. Remove and serve on a large platter.

Day 6: An amazing fish carving napkin holder handmade by Grandpa Free. XOXOX



Day 7. A cute green present orderment with $$ inside and an awesome 2011 calendar which they made! Now I have no excuse to forget anybody's birthday on the Free side of the family! Thank you so much Granny and Grandpa! You made some happy memories for us this year and kept the kids occupied sculpting with their clay! Yay, that means less BOREDOM in our household that lasted for a day, lol!



Next the girls opened their Christmas Eve gift, which contained new pajamas! Yes, it is a family Christmas Eve tradition to receive pajamas in our household! John also gave us some more toe socks! Here we are in our new PJ's! I got mine on my birthday a couple days before!




At dinner time, we lite our new Christmas candle and listened to Christmas music. Our Christmas Eve dinner menu included the following: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and sparkling ginger ale.



Big sister read a story to us while we ate our dinner.



For the next couple hours, I made tons of goodies to give to my extended family members and felt inspired to drop off some baked goods to my Mother the next day who was afraid of being lonely on Christmas day! So John and I made the following goodies: pumpkin chocolate chip bread, banana bread, peppermint brownies, and peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies! I was done baking around midnight, no joke! A "Secret Mrs. Claus" one of John's friends dropped off a surprise for big sister! We talked with her until 3:00AM that night and she watched us set up Christmas! What a sweet friend to do such a nice thing for us! Thanks you, my friend!!!