Christmas fun, that is!   With all of the excitement yesterday of bringing home our 4th family member – I didn’t get to post about the rest of my Christmas!! 

After opening presents at my Grandparents (Mom’s side) – Mike and I went home, went for a quick 1 mile run, then got ready to go to my Aunt & Uncle’s (Dad’s side) to celebrate some more Christmas! 

My Dad is the oldest of 8 – so our family gatherings on that side are always CRAZY, and always involve lots of food and beverage! My contribution was the same as what I brought to my Aunt & Uncles on Christmas Eve – Baked Brie – a la Iowa Girl Eats! Except it was a small fail – seeing as I forgot to remove a piece of plastic from the brie before I wrapped it in the puffed pastry!   My family was nice enough to try and hide it so my feelings weren’t hurt – but I heard them say “Don’t tell Allison” – so I forced them to tell me! Maybe I should stick to bringing veggie trays and wine – I seem to at least get that much right! While I could have drank water or Diet Coke – I decided “it’s the holidays!” – and scoped out my beverage selection at the “adult table”!   My Aunt had made a fun Vodka Punch – I think it was vodka, Sprite, Lemonade, and Cranberry juice.  Whatever it was it was TASTY!

Apparently – all of my Dad’s siblings decided to surprise my Grandparents with a Wii – which they wanted so badly! (I promise – that’s my Grandpa’s excited face! ) Just in case there wasn’t enough craziness going on – the adults wanted to get a picture of all the grandkids (except this isn’t all of us – there are at least 6 missing!) I had munched on all the appetizers all afternoon – and then made a tiny plate of my Aunt Debbie’s Rigatoni (YUM!!!), and my Mom’s Reuben Dip – that I DREAM ABOUT ON A REGULAR BASIS!   (I know some of you asked for the recipe to this the last time I posted it – I still don’t have it!  I promise I’ll get it soon!) All the food was absolutely delicious!   The Vodka Punch, and Pinot Noir weren’t bad either!

As if we hadn’t eaten or drank enough – then it was time to head back over to my Mom’s side of the family for some more tasty treats!

While this side might be smaller – it’s still just as much fun to get together!  Here’s the whole clan (minus me since I’m taking the picture!) Lasagna & salad (I couldn’t even finish this plate – it was amazing but I was just totally stuffed!) Then after opening presents – we headed home with my brother Timmy and cousin Caroline in tow, because they wanted to come over and play!  I don’t have any pictures – but I can tell you – many Christmas beverages were imbibed!

I’ll leave you with this pic…

Little did Lando know – this was her last night as “the one and only dog of the house”