Only 1 more day 'til vacation!

That's right...one more day then I'm off work thru Jan. 5th...woo hoo!! Work has been soooo hectic with the staffing changes that we had to make so I'm definitely ready for the break...

Last weekend, the kids & I made the one & only Christmas candy that I can make on short notice...M&M chocolate pretzels. So simple - line a cookie sheet w/ little pretzels, have plenty of kids around to unwrap a bag of Hershey kisses (milk or dark chocolate), put a kiss on each pretzel then put in a pre-heated 250 degree oven for 5 minutes...no longer! Pull them out of the oven then press an M&M (any flavor but try to get red & green ones - the peppermint ones are awesome w/ the dark chocolate!) down into the kiss. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes then put on cookie racks to finish setting up...simple & delicious!!

We had a busy weekend like most people this time of the year...the "sickies" hit Katie Friday night (that makes 4 out of the 6 of us!) and she was pretty puny all weekend long. We still managed to fit quite a bit in though!

We went to Huntingburg Saturday morning for Shane's company "kid" Christmas party - soooo many things for the kids to do like "elf" bowling, balloon animals (my hubby is the master balloon animal tie'er upper), letters to Santa, face painting, etc etc plus they all got a gift from Santa. The doughnuts & chocolate milk were good too...at least for everyone but Katie who "lost" her breakfast 5 minutes later - yuck! All she had consumed was the milk but we still had to make a run for the bathroom...and we almost made it....that's right, ALMOST. I had to do a little clean up...but she was a trooper and put her game face on for a little while longer until we could leave.

After the party, the kids & I headed back to Washington to take Kate to Shane's mom & dad's and Nick to Anna's so the rest of us could head to Evansville to finish up our shopping - we didn't think that a sick Kate nor a 5-yr-old Nick could hold up very well in the mall on the Saturday before Christmas!! The twins did great though and we finallllly finished our shopping - after the mall, we hit Target (one of the few things I miss about living in E-ville!) then went to dinner at Nagasaki. Its a Japanese hibatchi restaurant so the kids absolutely love having their dinner cooked right in front of them on the grill...its one of our family faves! Once we picked up Katie (Nick spent the night at Anna's) and got home, I wrapped gifts for 2 hours (ugg!) then crashed.

On Sunday, the twins & I went to church at Providence b/c it was Beth & Dad's 24th wedding anniversary and my brother Dan sang w/ the Praise Team and also solo...he did a great job! I was so looking forward to finally getting to hear Shawn deliver a sermon but no-go...his youth pastor preaches once a month and it was his turn....great message though! After church, we all went to Mi Pueblo and Shane & Katie met us there. Then all of the girls went w/ me to Anna's so they could open presents w/ Nick...such cute stuff! We headed home after a quick visit then I went to Wal-mart to stock up for all of the Christmas dinners this week. Once I got home, I made some more M&M pretzels then dinner then DROPPED on the couch....I was worn out!

The next week will be a busy as the weekend but I'm so looking forward to all of our family traditions...if I don't have time to post before Thursday - Merry Christmas to all of you!