Christmas & New Years

I'm way behind! I've been so busy enjoying my time off school that I've completely neglected my blog. So here's a post to update you on what I've been doing for the holidays... be for warned... this could be a long one.

New Years:
This year New Years was pretty low key. Les and I made a deal that we will take turns picking what we get to do on the holidays that aren't the major ones (i.e. Halloween & New Years) This year was my turn to pick. So we headed to good ol' Grandma Lola's for some games and some good food. We had what we like to call "A New York New Years". Basically we all hung out at my grandma's house until 10:00 (New York's Midnight) and then we split.

My grandma made up her very own version of Family Feud. She surveyed all her brothers and sisters to make up the answers. It was a pretty intense game. We are very competitive and none of us like to lose...so needless to say there was a lot of yelling and accusations of cheating. We also played an intense game of Blurt. If you haven't heard of that game before...its where you all sit in a circle and one person reads a defination of a word and the first person to "blurt" out the correct word gets to move it's person ahead. Well, this game got very hostile and my poor grandma got very scared and standoffish when it was her turn to read the definition because she could never tell who said it first because everyone was yelling...Good times.

I'm embarrased to admit that I didn't even run outside to yell "Happy New Years" because me, Les, Marcia and Kurt were at Marcia's house watching Hancock when the clock struck 12...oh well, maybe next year.

Candy At Grandma's

OK...take a look at Bennett's face. Isn't that hillarious?! He all of a sudden just started making that face when he's mad at you...I love it. I had to post it.

A few weeks before Christmas me and all my sisters headed to my grandma's to help her finish up her Christmas Candy. It's always tons of fun making candy and getting to lick our fingers after we are done. Marcia found some old aprons of my grandma's so we all put one on to get into the baking spirit. Let me just give you a background on this candy...We have made it every year since I can remember and it is the most delicious candy known to man. It beats out any candy store by far! We call it "Better than See's Candy". Each year my grandma give us a box full of candy as part of our christmas give. It is a coveted christmas item....I kid you not. The sunday she passes it out there are salivating mouths hoovering around the candy table anxiously waiting their turns to cramp as much candy into the box as possible. My grandma only allows us to take what can fit in the box with the lid close...She checks our boxes to make sure they will shut before we leave. Well, some people (my dad) try to be clever and use a rubberband to make the lid close so they can get away with more candy...shame!

The Saturday before Christmas Les and I headed over to his aunt's house to celebrate christmas with Les's Mom's side of the family. It's lots of fun. There are tons of kids running around all over the place. Santa even comes to give everyone a gift...It's alway fun to hang out with his family and see all the new babies. I swear they each have a new one everytime I see them...

Les and I were big slackers this year. We didn't get treats out to our neighbors until the 23rd. I felt bad everytime someone came to the door with a treat and I had nothing to give them in return. I was so behind I inlisted my husband to help decorate while I baked. All the cookies I made were organic and delicious. I was super stoked because I found an awesome frosting recipe that turned out great. I was the talk of the neighborhood and got a ton of completments on how good my cookies were...and they didn't even know they were organic. Man...I rock!

My mom's tree is always the highlight of Christmas. She's freaking amazing. Here are some pictures of it Christmas Morning.

Christmas at my mom's was way fun this year because Brennen is finally getting to an age were he understands Santa. He was so excited to open every gift. After he opened it he would hold it high in the air for everyone to see. It was hillarious. I was pretty sad that this year the Hutchison Kid's Traition was broken. Usually all the kids sleep together in a room and wake up early to open our stockings but because of kids and grumpy husbands the married kids couldn't do it this year. So Natalie, Tyson and Tracy built a fort in the basement to sleep it. The fort was freaking awesome. Brennen was loving it. He would hide in the fort and tell us to come find him. One thing that didn't change was my mom's FABULOUS christmas breakfast. Yum Yum.

So all in all I had a great holiday season and I loved spending time with my families. It's my favorite time of the year....I hope you all had a great holiday and if you made it through this post, bless your heart!