Christmas

Christmas morning we continued our tradition of making donuts, only this time I had a recipe from my favorite website (www.100daysofrealfood.com) and earlier in the year had picked up this donut maker for around $10!

I made chocolate and regular donuts and then "frosted" them with a chocolate syrup I make from just cocoa powder and maple syrup.  They were a HUGE hit!!!

As you can see, we didn't have very many leftovers!

And the kids were a chocolaty mess :)

Then we wrapped our gifts for the kids.  Yep, I really did just say that LOL

We normally wrap gifts a day or two before Christmas (I know, this is still really last minute!) , but because Stephen and I were with Jim most of Monday, and then Stephen was there on Tuesday, plus with Stephen really wanting to have all of us sleep in the living room together Christmas Eve, we did not have any time to wrap gifts!  The kids were very patient and understanding, and just played in their rooms until we were done :)

Stephen reading the Christmas Story from the Bible.

Eva enjoying her  bone from her stocking while he read from the Bible

Titus's gift to Damaris

Definitely her favorite gift of the whole year!

Titus bought me a new necklace, earring, and bracelet set

The kids pooled their money to get Stephen this cool Lions sign!

Damaris bought Titus the movie Planes, which was also a huge hit!

A super soft blanket is what Damaris bought for me!

Titus got this sweatshirt, some dress pants, this video game, and then his big present was tickets to be able to go to the museum in Grand Rapids that has a dinosaur exhibit right now!!  Unfortunately our printer ran out of ink, so we had to just tell him what his big present was :(

I didn't realize I didn't get a picture of Damaris...she got two pair of jeans and then her big present was tickets to go to the waterpark we went to earlier this fall...she has been asking and asking to go back, so she was pretty excited about that!!!!

Stephen got a tool for his barn, which was his birthday and Christmas combined, so no picture :)

I asked for money this year from everyone, and I am putting all that money toward a plane ticket to see my niece graduate in Texas!!

Here is our Christmas feast!  

We had shrimp, and of course our favorite Mandarin orange jello salad, rolls, meat balls (I used the burger from Stephen's deer he shot this year!), sesame chicken, brown rice, homemade green bean casserole (steamed the beans, homemade cream of mushroom sauce, and homemade french fried onions...it really was quicker and easier than I thought, and it was sooooo good!), and a raspberry custard pie.  It was a LOT of work, but everything tasted amazing!!!!!!!  And of course we also had sparkling juice to wash everything down with :)