Christmas 2008

Taylor and I had our first Christmas at home with our 4 four-legged kids, and it was wonderful! We both come from families that really know how to celebrate Christmas, so it has been so much fun combining our family traditions and adding new ones! It was a perfect Christmas :)

My mom and dad suprised Taylor with a canoe! This way I can go with him and make sure he's safe-- no more kayaking all by himself until sundown! If a gator wants him, they'll have to go through me first!! haha ;)

Since my dad's birthday is December 24th, we have always had birthday cake on Christmas Eve! Suzanne started making cake for me on Christmas Eve the first Christmas that I spent on Bainbridge (the first Christmas away from my family), and we decided that it's a pretty good tradition to keep!

Taylor found a recipe from one of Bobby Flay's Throwdowns on FoodChannel.com for me, so I could made a red velvet cake this year--it seemed kind of Christmas-y :)

Grammy's fudge! We learned to make it this summer when we went to Oregon... I accidentally used the wrong kind of chips, but my hubby has still been eating it-- so it wasn't a total loss :)

Our first Christmas without family-- and no one to take pictures of us together ;)

Mexican Fiesta-- one of Taylor's family traditions...we only made half of the recipe and STILL have sooo much leftover!

One of the MANY clean-ups we had to deal with :)
Time to watch a movie (Love Actually)...so Pumpkin always starts hiding in case we try to catch her ;)

But then she jumped up on the couch all by herself to snuggle with her daddy :)

Way too much activity for Tubbie with all the baking and cooking... Gamer had left the room to go have some quiet time by this point. She doesn't like it when we don't sit still :)

Sweet Maggie, resting on her daddy's feet :)

Christmas morning!
Our ornaments from Suzanne and Les :)

Taylor and I did each other's stocking this year-- so the gifts all had to be small enough to fit in the stocking (Taylor kind of cheated and only followed the size idea of stocking gifts and not the price...he spent way too much money on me, as usual --his heart is a little bit too big for his own good sometimes!!)

Christmas stockings for the dogs! They all have very specific toy preferences...

Lots of stuffed animals for Maggie

Lots of edible toys and treats for Tubbs- he was allowed off his diet for the day, of course!

Chewy toys for Gamer (more for her to "guard" than chew....but it makes her happy :))

Squeaky toys and a hand puppet for Pumpkin (I need to make her a stocking too, I know!)

Mine! Mine and MINE!! (Maggie sometimes needs a reminder when it comes to sharing stuffed animals)
Getting so brave...

She loves the hand puppet!

DON'T TOUCH MY TOYS! And no one ever listens to her-- they know she's all talk.

Tubbs--just making sure he's not missing out on any treats.

4 happy, spoiled dogs

Thanks Anne and Bobby for our Mario Kart!! :)

Taylor's new fishing vest

My new slippers

Our dog snowglobe from our Bainbridge Island Santa :)

Suzanne's hash brown quiche for Christmas morning breakfast --with Mimosas in honor of Poppy, of course!!

So many toys to choose from!
Taylor making his first prime rib (Suzanne's recipe :))
It was perfect!!!

Mmmmm :)

Having a father/son moment...

Time to clean up!!

Taylor took this without me knowing... and I am clearly loving the Wii (just a bit serious though...)

And I am stuck in the grass while playing Mario Kart (and still being super serious)--I would have looked like an awesome player if he hadn't have included the TV in this shot! haha ;) I'm learning!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!! :)