Christmas!

I have been BUSY. When I say busy I mean BUSY. Did I mention BUSY! My family started arriving on December 21st of last year (ha) and they just kept coming. It was like some historically impactful battle that ends in a hostile take over. Okay I'll be serious, I love having my family here, especially at Christmas. There is something comforting and fulfilling about a warm, cozy house filled with family and friends, twinkle lights and tons of food. Especially really good food.







Such as Lou Malnati's pizza, brought from Chicago by my Uncle Jamie and cousin Jacob who spent Christmas with us. (Aunt Carolyn had to work a lot around Christmas, so she had to stay home, which was  sad. Hopefully they can all come visit with us this spring or summer!)

Also, Kim makes really good salads. With a smile. *CHING*!

No Thiessen/Porowski/Rice get together would be complete without an intense, loud, competitive card game. 

My cousin Jacob... as serious as they come!

Christmas at our house was fun. 

Coffee Crisp, the best candy bar ever, and they don't even sell it in States... it comes from  the far off land of Canada.

Sasha

My Dad - a mature example for the family. Bahahaha :)

Typical!

My wonderful parents!

You can see our wonderful fake Christmas tree in the above photo. The beginning tree itself was a little sparse, so when Kim and I decorated my house, we filled it in with fake branches from another fake tree (I'm a tad bitter about not being able to get a real tree this year, but we wanted to spend the cash on other things. Like gifts. Pfft.) which actually made it look really cool. I was really happy with our creation in the end, as happy as I could be without having a beautiful, naturally pine scented, sap filled, needle dropping, real tree.

My Dad took some great pics, so I thought I'd share a few of his as well!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!!

Merry Christmas!!!

The Fourth Annual Pre-Christmas Cookie Baking Bash

That's right, it's the that time again. The time when the weather gets chilly and breezy, the leaves turn yellow and red and fall to the ground. That time of pumpkin spice latte's, turkey and stuffing, and way too much football. Um, no I'm not talking about Fall. Clearly it's time for the Pre-Christmas Cookie Baking Bash! Katie and I enjoy this little event every year around this time, a tradition established in the lovely golden year of 2007. Our first annual PCCBB was when I was pregnant with Audrey (probably somewhere around the beginning of my second trimester?) and we've done it through both of her pregnancies also, though last year's may have been right before she got pregnant with Parker? Maybe she can confirm that for me. Anyway. Now we can involve our adorable little girls who just happen to love making cookies (aka eating lots of sugar). So this year I'm doing a little comparison.

THEN (2007): 

NOW (2011):

I'd say we look pretty stinkin good and have adorable children, to boot. 

My next comparison is of the very first chilly snowman cookie we made, aka Snowman Chilly Nips, Mr. Nipply, and Nips. He is the only cookie to be officially remade every single year. 

THEN:

NOW:

Good times!!

Annual PCCBB's are not complete without Christmas movies and background music. This year was great, because we got to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas with our little ones, although it was mostly us who watched while they played. It was great all the same. 

The best part was the baking and decorating, of course. The girls loved it, and it was fun to watch them!

Audrey did more eating than decorating... but that's just part of the fun!

Nomnom!

Audrey's cookies were loaded with sprinkles and toppings.

Putting the final touches on Nips!

Parker watched us from the bumbo - such a cutie!

Audrey went into baby mode and tried to sit in all of the baby chairs. Silly girl.

Yay for traditions!