Christmas Eve's Marathon Event!

So I might have over did myself just a little by trying to cram every little holiday party my family has to go into one day! I was worried PJ becoming cranky well, I forget when she gets cranky my mood changes as well... Cheering her up was hard... She was soooo tired and when she did fall asleep she woke up because people were loud or she woke up because she was hot from laying on me. Don't get me wrong, I love my family and I love my in-laws but ...24 hours of no "me" time was a little to much for me to bare and made be very irritable and cranky. I did get a little mouthy with my brother. You got to remember brothers and sisters will always bicker, even when they get older. It doesn't mean I don't love him any less. Moving on:

Christmas at the in-laws: We had an amazing lunch and I of course had to take advantage of some hot coffee to wake me up a little bit. Everyone loved my fudge which is pretty cool since, I made it from the microwave and it only took about 10 minutes maybe max! The kids were all excited to open presents they couldn't eat fast enough. Little did they know they actually had to wait on Pj to wake up from her cat nap. (literally like 20-30 min long!) Once Pj was up Santa was on the move!! Pj had a little rough time at first getting into the swing of opening presents. She was more curious about the boxes and bags than the actual presents at first, until daddy starting playing with them of course. I couldn't wait for my in-laws to open their gift. I put a lot of time and effort into make the prefect coffee cup for them definitely made with love and photos of the cutest little girl ever! (PJ of course!) Some times mornings are rough and it is hard to start the day off right, but whenever they take a sip to get the morning going they will see PJ's smiling face and huge dimples giving them the power they need to make it through the day! Their face was priceless when they opened their presents!

 

 

 

The in-laws was shortly lived we were off to my parents house for Christmas. I couldn't even wait for the perfect photo opportunity! My daughter and nephew in front of the tree on their first Christmas!!  Behinde in the background you can see the matching Toy boxes the little ones got and their presents sitting on top. Didn't take but 15 minutes for my family to start opening presents. Again PJ didn't take much interest in opening her presents but she did play with the boxes, wrapping paper, and ribbon. So hey that's one step up from the boxes! Once that was all done my parents gave us the most surprising gift and unexpected. I didn't expect for much for Christmas, I would rather it go towards PJ and the things she needs, but my parents are amazing needless to say. Just like my in-laws I got my father a coffee mug also. I think he liked it. He told me he didn't want to use it because he didn't want to ruin it, as I assured him it is dishwasher safe on the first rack only!..

 

The genius Christmas idea::

Marney and I started unwrapping two different shaped boxes. We had to go step by step together. We then had to open one of the flaps and slowly pull the ribbon out. Being the untrusting person I am, I expected something to come flying out so I pointed the opening of the box towards Kevin while I pulled. (LOL) but nothing scary popped out instead, a gift card came falling out along with more ribbon and another gift card etc. Once I finally finished pulling the rest of the ribbon out we ended up with 20 different gift cards to random places each $10 bucks. When you think about it, this Idea is GENIUS! You can start collecting these gift cards all year just for Christmas. This way when Christmas comes, you don't have to worry about shoveling out a crap load of money!!  Parents with older children or people who are hard to buy for.. this is a perfect idea!! Plus if you are looking to put more than 10 bucks on a card.. and are doing it for a multiple of people, check out Sam's club they have pretty good deals on gift cards where you actually pay less than what the total cost of the gift card is!

 

 

Once all that done, we waited around for my dad's side of the family to come to my parents house for Christmas dinner. (As if I wasn't full enough!) Once, everyone ate dinner, including the little ones, we were at round three of opening presents. My husband and I pretty much gave up on trying to get PJ to open the presents, so he opened them or her while I held her. She got a bunch of cool presents. (Some that were actually on my Christmas on a budget post needless to say)

 

 

Homemade Salt Dough Foot/Hand Print Ornament

1/2 Cup of Salt

1/2 Regular Flour

1/4 cup of water

Mix all together roll out and make hand/foot print.

Make sure you poke a hole where you want to hang your ornament at!

Bake at 200 degrees F for 3 hours

Let Cool and then paint as your little heart desires..

 

My epic fail: I can't paint very well but here is the  pictures when I was all done!

 

Microwave Fudge

ingredients:

1 cup of peanut butter

1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 cup of powder sugar

 

Place peanut butter and butter into microwavable bowl for two minutes. Once two minutes is done, pull out and stir. Place Vanilla extract in and put back into microwave for another two minutes. Once done, whisk powder sugar into bowl making it as smooth as possible. Once smooth place into desired container. And let cool. (It's winter where I live so I left it outside, for about four hours, otherwise you can leave in the fridge for that same amount of time!) You can add other candies in if you want. I think I might try some rolos next year!