Merry Christmas and 1000th Post

This is my 1000th post!

Wow!

The above photo is of this yummy bread that we call "Grandma Parry's Po' Boy Fruit Cake".  Grandma Parry is my dad's maternal grandmother and the story is that she made this bread but was too poor to put the fancy fruit in and just put in raisins.  Thank goodness they were poor, because Fruit cake is GROSS!
This bread is such a tradition with me and my siblings.  My mom made every year at Christmas time and we all LOVE it.  She makes frosting for the top and it is not Christmas without it.  I'd made it one time before and it didn't turn out like my mom's so I never tried it again.
Well this Christmas I knew my mom wouldn't be making it so I decided to try it again.  Its a very strange recipe and the dough consistency is like a logey, at least that's what Paul said.  Thank goodness, it turned out and was a welcome site at our Christmas night gathering.
Its good enough that I want more but its tradition that we only have it at Christmas time so I guess it will be a year until we have it again.

3 out of 5 in their Christmas Eve Jammies

Christmas morning waiting for Dad to be ready to film everyone breaking thru the paper

what it looks like from Dad's side

 We had an awesome Christmas morning - very laid back and casual.  The kids are great about stretching out the morning and watching each other open their presents.
Santa brought:

• Justin an IOU for an iTouch
• Brooke a new guitar
• Taylor a laptop
• Jared a lego castle
• Kamryn an American Girl doll named Emily

Since we are going to France in May we tried to keep it to a smaller, more simple Christmas.  The kids all wanted to draw names for giving to their siblings.  It was so much fun to have Justin back with us for the holidays.  He went shopping to find Kamryn a present and got her the Elsa barbie from FROZEN.

Kamryn's new dolls
Molly (Brooke's American girl doll from when she was 8) with
Kamryn's new doll Emily and Elsa barbie

 We don't have very many photos from Christmas because we take more videos.  One of my favorite parts of the morning was when Kamryn gave Jared a present (LOTR Lego video game) and he was so excited and he went over and gave her a big hug.  It started a sweet trend where each sibling when they gave their gift the sibling receiving the gift gave them a hug.  Made this mom so happy.

A big part of Christmas at our house has involved building Lego sets.
Jared had a great time building his castle and let Kamryn be his assistant.

My FAVORITE Christmas decoration are all these Christmas cards, especially the photos! I have such a hard time taking them down - in fact, they are still up :)