Dec 25 & 26 - Family Christmas

My parents, little sister and their dog came down on Christmas night for some family time.  We knew that Izzy would have a ball (and I'm pretty sure that Gamaw and Gampaw enjoyed it too!).  We were also hosting my family's Christmas the next day, so I had some food prep to do.  I was making an Apple Cider-Brined Turkey with Savory Herb Gravy, so I needed to make the brine for the turkey.  This is an absolutely FANTASTIC recipe (although I omit the ginger because, as anyone that really knows me knows I DETEST ginger - hell I don't even like to touch the pieces of sushi rolls that touch that pickled ginger that they always give you!).

Champ is like a little dog in his brain but a BIG dog in his body (quite the opposite of Rosie).  We had to let him out back to run off some of his energy, but it was really wet and snowy, and since Champ is so big, it took 3 people to dry him off!

My parents adore Izzy...Gampaw clearly cannot get enough of her

Here's Bri opening her Fushigi ball...(WARNING...turn down your volume before you click on the link!)

Here's a video of Izzy opening her Dora Dress-up present

Since we planned on turning the spare bedroom into a man-cave, we no longer have a bed, so it's back to air mattresses for anyone that stays the night.  I'll always laugh when I think back to this part of the evening, because my dad was really tired, and Izzy wanted to go to bed with Gampaw, but she took her cash register in there and kept opening the drawer to it, hitting him in the head!  And I think he slept through the whole thing!

I think my dad was up before dawn, which is pretty typical for him.  We got up around 8:30am so I could get the turkey cooking.

Izzy and Pappa had a tea party

 

I'm not bragging or anything, but this is a damn pretty looking bird.  And TASTY too.  The biggest compliment I received was my Grandma saying that it didn't taste like turkey.  Little did I know that Grandma doesn't like turkey, so the fact that  cooked it in a way that took the gamey turkey taste out was a HUGE compliment, because I still think Grandma is one of the best cooks!

There was a LOT of food.

This looks like a very deep conversation, doesn't it?

My cousin, Jennifer, and her boyfriend

And then it was time for more presents...

Izzy got a castle tent from Aunt Andrea and family, which she LOVED.  And I'm glad she got it, because she and I tried to fit in her old tent last week and it just wasn't happening anymore :)

One word...CHAOS

I wish I had a picture of the doll that came out of this bag for Izzy from Grandma, but it's about 4 ft tall, and looks like a raggedy-anne doll.  And she was TERRIFIED of it!  Haaaa!