{Christmas}

What a wonderful Christmas we had. Dev's family - a.k.a. Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Tiffany - joined us for the holiday and it was so fun to have them.

As for the kiddos, Dean was beyond overjoyed to receive all things Transformers and Superheroes this year, Eli was over the moon for his Lightening McQueen and Buzz Lightyear toys and paraphernalia, and Ava was just content to crawl to whatever was left unattended for more than a few minutes. Santa also delivered an awesome heaping mound of GeoTrax trains and tracks (found at a garage sale for $35, I might add!) that have kept the boys busy ever since. Actually, we could barely pull Eli away from it on Christmas morning long enough for him to open the rest of his gifts. He is addicted! And perhaps the most fun family-size gift of all was the trampoline that the boys discovered in the backyard Christmas morning. Santa and helpers really froze their fingers to the bone setting that up on Christmas eve in 30-degree weather so trust me when I say that we were more than elated and relieved that it was a big hit.

We continued our PJ tradition for Christmas eve; Eli got Buzz Lightyear PJs and Buzz & Woody slippers, Dean got Transformers PJs and Optimus Prime slippers. When Dean saw his slippers, he exclaimed, "Just what I wanted!!" Gosh, he's cute. Eli was so excited, too.

Another tradition we gave a whirl this year were gingerbread waffles with cinnamon cream syrup for breakfast on Christmas morning. They were SOOOOOOO good! The recipe is:

(waffles) ¼ cup sugar, 1 ½ cup flour, 1 tsp ginger, ½ tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp cloves, ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 3 egg yolks, ½ cup, molasses, 1 cup buttermilk, 6 tablespoons melted butter. Combine all dry ingredients together (sugar, flour, spices, salt, baking soda and powder). Beat egg yolks. Add yolks, molasses, buttermilk and butter to dry ingredients. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold into batter. *If you do not have buttermilk, sour milk may be substituted. To make sour milk place 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar in liquid measuring cup and fill the rest of the way with regular milk to make 1 cup. Let sit for 5 minutes. Stir before adding to your recipe.

(syrup) 1 cup sugar, ½ cup light corn syrup, ¼ cup water, ½ tsp ground cinnamon, ½ cup whipping cream. In a small sauce pan, stir together sugar, corn syrup, water, and cinnamon. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil over moderate heat; boil 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in cream. Cool at least 30 minutes. Syrup will thicken as it cools. Makes 1 1/3 cups. Syrup may be refrigerated for several months. Serve warm or at room temperature.

My favorite gift of the day, by far, was a hand-stamped necklace Devin bought me with each of the kids' names on it. It is perfect and I love it so much!

I hope everyone's Christmas was as Merry as ours! And we wish you a happy new year too!