Sunday, December 30, 2007

Christmas 2007

Christmas started on the 21st with my mom and sister Karen coming with Santa's sleigh. They literally brought a carload of presents and we did our gift exchange then. They left Sunday morning to spend time with other family members while we had a Caress year.
We went to the Caress grandparents on Sun. night. Melissa was there cooking up a storm. We also went to Candy Cane lane to look at lights. This is something we have missed since moving from Valencia. It was fun to get back to this tradition. Notice how, even while merely eating a sucker, Maya has to strike a pose. Here she is with Melissa. I have always claimed that Maya is the most Caress-looking of all my children-from the moment she came out of the womb. When she is crying or sad she looks so much like Grandpa Tom's mom Ruth it makes me do a double take. But this picture of her and Melissa gave me pause again. I think they look so much alike in this picture, and in ways I never saw before.

Christmas Eve was spent at Kym & Chris's with the whole Caress & Knight clan. Kym once again outdid herself with a complete Mexican buffet. If you think I am exaggerating, let me just list everything here: queso, salsa, chips, mini-burritos, shrimp skewers, empanadas with chutney (that was the appetizers) then salad, a taco bar, rice and beans, tamales and chili, sweet corn cake (that was the main course) and the dessert bar was so vast that I will merely represent it with a picture which is literally worth a thousand words. Now, granted a few of us brought a couple of things to help out, but Kym really did the majority of the cooking and ALL the planning. A few games later and we were home, going to bed so Santa could come. Early night for the girls. Late night for the parents.
SANTA CAME. He brought McK a new bike. He brought Madison her own phone and alarm clock combo. The big girls got a doll house. From mom & dad, the girls received the following: Mck got pajama pants and backgammon, Mad got pajama pants, slippers, and the game Battleship, Maya got a Cheetah Girls guitar and outfit, Monterey got a trunk full of dress up clothes.

Next came all the presents from the extended family. Between my family and Ryan's family there were plenty of gifts and fun times. We had a breakfast of German Pancakes, bacon, sausage, fresh fruit, juice and Martinelli's. We were joined by Tom, Diane and Melissa.

On to Christmas at the Caress grandparents. For Christmas dinner, my assignment was rolls and vegetables (I did creamed corn and creamed spinach.) So while I started the rolls, everyone else played and got ready for the day. We headed over at 1:00, formed the rolls for the second rising and then did the gift exchange with Matt, Meagan, Sterling, Kym, and Chris. Appetizers, dinner, and desserts followed by movies, games, and relaxing. We played a new Scene-It game in teams. Ryan and I won because we had to end early with a quick "all-play to win" and we got one that I happen to know. Otherwise Chris and Kym would have beaten the pants off of everyone since Chris is a walking encyclopedia of movies. We went to see the new National Treasure movie (Ryan and the big girls opted out.) We went to bed with a pile of presents and wrapping in the living room and a sink full of dirty dishes, paraphrasing Scarlet O'Hara: I'll deal with it tomorrow, after all, tomorrow is another day.

5 comments:

Audry said...

Christmas looked like fun. The doll house looks very similar to one that was almost bought. Barbie took over though. :)

Sounds like you had lots of yummy food. I love mexcian.

Lillie said...

Oh my goodness...all that good stuff! Christmas in your house sounds like a dream. All those little girls opening fun little girl things.

And that Mexican Food spread at Kym's, YUM!

Jessica said...

Maya really does look a lot like your sister in that photo. I think it is cool the way your kids seem to always be changing even when it is difficult to notice. I remember saying that Samantha looked just like Jeremiah when she was born and now I have no idea who she looks like.

I can't wait until Samantha gets excited about Santa like your girls....next year maybe.

Kym said...

Such a great recap! Thanks for the kudos, btw. And thanks for bringing plenty of yummy food to add to our buffet. It really was such a fun night for us! I'm glad everyone was there. We do know how to eat, don't we?! I love Christmas & having all of us so closeby that we can party for days on end!!

Dayna said...

the picture of maya in her cheetah girls pj's and her guitar is the cutest picture ever!!! Your Mexican buffet sounds delish!