'Twas Very Merry

All Tyler asked for from Santa this year was the "new red Shrek movie". Not that he had ever seen it and he's not even a big Shrek fanatic. It was totally 100% the marketing that lured him in. I mean, really, he saw this movie every place we went for a month straight and McDonald's even had Shrek Happy Meal toys and the whole nine yards. But in order to get a believer, you gotta do what you gotta do, right? So, now you have the background on that.

I went to bed on Christmas Eve totally worried about how the morning was going to work itself out because I wanted to be there when Tyler discovered that Santa had come, but the way things work at our house, the living room separates our bedroom and his. So I usually wake up in the morning with Tyler standing at my bedside telling me it's sunny outside since he wakes up, gets out of bed, and comes into my room without a peep--and he has to walk through the living room to do so. And you just never know when he's going to wake up either, so I didn't know if I could set an alarm or how it would all work. Needless to say, it made for a very bad night's sleep for me since I was worrying about it so much, only to drift off to a most peaceful slumber around 6:00. Next thing I know, Tyler is standing right next to my bedside in his soooo stinkin' cute Thomas pj's (thanks Grandma!) holding Shrek the Third saying "Mommy! Santa brought me this new red Shrek movie!! And...a tractor..." Not the way I had envisioned Christmas morning, but I must admit, it was such a fun way to be woken up!

I quickly wiped the sleep from my eyes and jumped out of bed trying to gain composure so I could take in every minute of it. Garrett and I were rushing around trying to tell Tyler to wait just a minute while we got Sam and the camera, etc. All the while, he is running in and out of our bedroom announcing another item he had discovered. So we finally got out there and got to work. Here are some of my favorite images from Christmas morning at our house this year.

Santa knew that Tyler wanted the Shrek movie, but Santa also wanted to find Tyler just the right toy to go with it. So, when Santa saw this remote control tractor, he knew it was a must. And I gotta admit, Santa hit the nail on the head. It was the hit of the day! Tyler was thrilled with it!
And is there anything better than digging through the stocking? I think not. I love the treasures that are found in the sock.
I love me some Christmas morning bedhead!



It was time for Sam to join the rest of us and have some BYU gear of his own. Startin' him young.


Gosh, that Santa is good. He even left a little something for Daddy. (which some chubby little hands were trying to get into) So, Matt & Amber Nielsen, you know Garrett's feelings on drinking soda out of a can or a bottle as opposed to a cup, so you can only imagine how he feels sipping his soda out of a glass bottle!

Oh, the tractor.... Drove over mounds of wrapping paper and hills of empty boxes. It was the sound of Christmas morning at our house.

If you know Garrett, you probably know that he is an instruction book junkie. He reads the instruction manual from cover to cover for every item that comes with one. Literally. And he rips into them immediately after opening the package and reads away. (this is very beneficial for me since I hate reading instruction manuals and he can just show me how to use something in 1/10 of the time it would take to read how...) And if you've ever spent Christmas morning with Garrett, you also know that you have to strategically let him open his gifts, so that any gifts that include instruction manuals are last so you don't have to delay the present opening activities while you wait for him to read instructions. Because there have literally been times when we have all finished opening our presents while Garrett is still on his first one. Lucky for us, we just happened to open the Wii from Garrett's parents very last (even though we had no idea we were getting it, so it was not even a strategic thing, just lucky). Its instruction manual was devoured in record time. And this year I realized that Tyler is the exact same way. He would open one present and have no interest in any more until we reminded him that he had more to open. First it was the tractor. It had to be removed from the box with batteries in place and driving around before he could move on to other gifts. Then it was the books. He got a couple of books. And with each one, he had to turn every page and look at the pictures before going on. So... this would strike my FAVORITE image of the day below. They are twins, I tell you! Here are my instruction manual afficionados:

And we pretty much stayed in our jammies (all of us in new ones, thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Andersen) until about 4:00 and lounged in this glorious mess all day long. We ate pain perdu (a Southern french toast recipe) for breakfast (at around noon I believe) with eggs and bacon and sausage and orange juice. :) I failed at my attempt to make the traditional Andersen family Christmas morning bran muffins. Oh well, I guess I can try again another year. A day spent totally relaxing and being together with the magic in the air called Christmas. It was such a fun experience as the magic of Santa Claus was ever so present and I have to say I am pretty sure we got ourselves a believer! We had dessert with friends that evening and were completely spoiled by all of our families. Thank you all so much! Hope you all had a Very Merry Christmas!

Cookies for Santa & Stockings Hung

After we got home from the bonfires, we had to get to work getting ready for Santa. We decorated some cookies for him and sprinkled reindeer food out on the lawn. We built a fire in our fireplace after being inspired by Troy & Lexi's cozy fire at their house and the bonfires we had just been to--it just seemed fitting! Although, I don't know if building a fire is the proper way to get ready for Santa to come down the chimney...? Then we opened our Christmas pajamas and headed to bed.

Just like the rest of our decorating events, more frosting went in the mouth than onto the cookies. And apparently someone must have told Tyler that Santa likes his cookies best when they have fingers swiped through them first.
Gotta give Sam a little face time here since he is so stinkin' cute. :)
(next year we'll have matching stockings for everyone, I promise!:) )

A Very Cajun Christmas

Our Christmas Eve festivities were more unique and a bit more memorable than anything we have done in the past. We started off our evening by going to our dear Bishop's house and feasting on his wife's famous gumbo. It was delicious--I must learn how to make it! He then read "A Cajun Night Before Christmas" to all the kids and then we went to Gramercy for the Christmas Eve bonfires. The tradition of the bonfires started a long, long time ago. All of the Cajun kids were worried that it was much too dark in the swamp and that Papa Noel would have a very hard time finding them on Christmas Eve. So, they all built bonfires on the levee of the Mississippi River to light the way for him. They do it every single year now, weather permitting. We had all plans to go last year, but it rained all day so they didn't do it. So we were excited to get the chance to go this year, and it was something else! When we walked up to the levee, there were literally bonfires as far as the eye could see on either side of us. There is absolutely NO way that Papa Noel would miss those little Cajun kids. And not only were people lighting huge bonfires, they were also setting off fireworks all over the place. In typical Louisiana fashion, it was done big, that's for sure!
We enjoyed a new Christmas Eve tradition and have decided that so long as we live in Louisiana, we will go make sure the way is lit for Papa Noel on Christmas Eve.
(don't know why Tyler thought it would be fun to show off his bare belly for this picture!)

The "Bread Man House"

Our Christmas Eve got kicked off with the decorating of our gingerbread house. (Tyler calls them bread man houses.) We bought a kit a week prior to Christmas and I think I was asked numerous times a day every day during that week if we could put it together. So, it was finally time.
Still in our pj's, we went to work decorating. And just like all of our decorating endeavors of late, it ended up in a frosting eating/candy sneaking extravaganza instead. Oh well, that's half the fun, right?!

And now as I have very little desire to eat any of it, I'm just trying to decide when the appropriate time to throw it away is... :)

Visits to the Big {and not so big} Guy

What would Christmas be without some visits to the big man himself? These first ones were at our ward party. Tyler was THRILLED to see Santa. It was so cute. This has of course been the first year when Tyler really started to catch all this Santa stuff. He was too excited that he forgot to tell Santa what he wanted, so the rest of the night, he kept saying "I 'got (means forgot) to tell Santa what I want." And he was so bummed, but we kept telling him he'd get to a chance to see him again.

And this was the "chance" and it was a little disappointing. Our apartment complex has a Christmas party every year and last year's was AWESOME. They had tons of people, presents, food, a dj, a "real" Santa, etc. This year's party was sorely disappointing. I'm not sure if they had Santa fall through or if this is what they were planning on doing the whole time, but this is one of the maintenance guys for our complex and he didn't even come close to pulling it off. When you walked into the room, he sat in a chair dressed in the Santa suit without a beard and would only put the beard on when a child would walk up to him and want to sit on his lap. I was a bit baffled by that. How is that going to convince anyone? And then he also was about 120 pounds and had a pony tail sticking out the back of the wig. Anyways, we thought we'd still try to go with it for Tyler and we asked him if he wanted to sit on Santa's lap and he said "oh, no, that's not Santa. That's just a guy in Santa's suit." OK, he was right about that. And he had absolutely no interest in having anything to do with him. So with a swift explanation that he was Santa's helper, we convinced Tyler to still sit on his lap and tell him what he wanted so he could relay the message. And once he started telling him what he wanted, we had a hard time getting him to stop.

So, those were our Santa visits for the 2007. :)

Christmas Butter Cookies

I am taking a little break from playing Guitar Hero on the Wii to start with my blog updating. And to start with my holiday updating, I must go back about a week before Christmas. I took these cookies to a cookie exchange and thought I'd share the recipe with you. I know you obviously won't be able to make one to put out for Santa or anything, but maybe you can use it next year or make a yummy valentine's heart. And let me say, this is the BEST cut out cookie recipe I have ever used. I have tried many and this is the one I will always use. I credit my friend Kristy for the recipe. She was right when she said it was the best one around. And keep in mind, they are called butter cookies for a reason. :) Here is the recipe:

5 sticks butter
6 cups flour
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
3/4 tsp. vanilla

Cream together butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla; beat. Add flour. Roll out on a heavily floured surface about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut out shapes. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet. Cookies should not brown and will not rise, but will spread slightly. Allow to cool before removing from sheet.

The cookies are good even without frosting, so you can frost or leave unfrosted as you wish. :) And really, they are the softest cookies and melt in your mouth (because of the 5 stick of butter I assume!). Enjoy!


And of course the funnest part was decorating, because it meant Tyler got to use GREEN frosting. :) But like any decorating endeavor, it turned into a frosting eating event instead.

I hope you all had a great Christmas. We have had a wonderful day. I have oodles of pictures to post when I get a chance (if my arm isn't too sore from playing tennis or bowling!). But until then, Merry Christmas!

Christmas Tree Retrieval Process

December 1, 2007

Remember that tree we picked out weeks ago? Well, we did indeed go cut it down and I'm finally posting pictures. The retrieval process this year consisted of something like these following steps:

1. Dressed in none other than short sleeves and shorts (much more appropriately than two weeks earlier), find a really really big pair of work gloves.
2. Get out there and find the tree you tagged two weeks earlier.


3. Pick a saw and get to work...

4. Do lots of supervising. Make sure that tree gets chopped down with the utmost care.

5. Watch the helper guys take your tree to the tractor.
6. Escort the tree on its tractor ride.
7. Once off the tractor, load up the tree into the "old, old, junky gray pick up." (that is what Tyler titled the pick up shortly after we got our new car. Very fitting as the pick up is now sitting in the driveway broken down and hasn't been driven for a week.)
8. A goold old thumbs up and head home.
9. Haul the tree up the stairs.

10. Decorate and enjoy for the season! Tyler's ornament this year is none other than Thomas, of course! There is actually a Percy too somewhere, but they have been hard to keep track of since some chubby little hands keep taking them off the tree. Shocking, I know.
The tree consists of about 1000 lights, I believe. And although it seems so crazy how fast this season has flown by, it has been so fun to have our tree and we all love looking at it.
Merry Christmas!