Hey Santa

Today was a busy day in our house. We hosted the Murphree Family Christmas Eve dinner at our house and had some very special guests, so we spent all day getting ready! I let Banks and Mary Reese make sugar cookies for Santa. They did great with cutting out the cookies but we ran out of time and didn't get them iced! Sorry Santa! Maybe next year you will get iced cookies but hopefully we got points for them being homemade. They also helped me set the tables. I brought down their Pottery Barn table from the playroom and let them set it with their plates and silverware. We were trying to come up with a centerpiece for their table when I remembered I had the small green aluminum tree, so we added that to their table and then Banks decided he wanted to decorate it. I didn't have any extra ornaments laying around, so I got all the ornaments off the big tree they have made in their school years, a drum Jody made one year in school and the infamous scrap material ball that I made in kindergarten (maybe I will get a picture of it on the blog tomorrow). They had a very festive table and they did it all themselves!

After a delicious and delightful dinner of standing rib roast (my first time to cook it...it made me kind of nervous cooking $100 worth of meat for the first time!), smoked ham, scalloped potatoes, mac and cheese, green bean bundles, roasted root vegetables and rolls, the kids opened all their presents. Afterwards everyone hit the dessert table! We had a pecan pie, caramel cake, strawberry cake and a fresh coconut cake with a Nana Cooper dollop of icing on top! It was all very yummy!

Jody and I always exchange our gifts on Christmas Eve. I think he was actually surprised about his gift this year...a Big Green Egg! I got a new end table, earrings and a necklace! Before the kids went to bed, they put out a tray of sugar cookies for Santa, 2 carrots for the reindeer and a glass of chocolate milk (Banks insisted that Santa requested chocolate milk this year). They were both so exhausted, they nestled right in their beds! Hey Santa...Banks is dreaming of a zip line, some trees for our backyard to hang the zip line from and a hot chocolate maker. Mary Reese has visions of riding a pink princess bicycle with a purse on the front and a bell! We hope we are both on your Nice list this year! Guess I better get nestled in so Santa doesn't pass up our house this year...I think I just heard is sleigh bells approaching! Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!