Family Christmas #1

Brett, the dogs, and I are leaving Tuesday to visit my family in Pennsylvania for the holidays. I am so excited to see everyone and spend some time with them. My Dad is having surgery tomorrow, something involving a disc in his neck, so please keep him in your prayers.

In the meantime, Brett and I had his family over for dinner last night to celebrate Christmas since we won't be with them on the actual day. Dinner was wonderful! Brett did another amazing job on the Turkey and everything I made turned out well also. My culinary accomplishment of the day was a cake in which I saw on the cover of this month's Family Circle Magazine. It is a strawberry filled coconut cake. It was made from scratch with two layers, strawberry preserves in the middle, and a delicious cream cheese frosting. I was a little nervous, as am not sure that I have ever made a cake entirely from scratch. The outcome was breathtaking (the picture doesn't do it justice)...it turned out better than I could have imagined and tasted "exquisite", as Brett put it.
After dinner, we opened presents and had a few good laughs!

Hera trying on the Santa hat!

A not so flattering picture of Lucy with G-Ma Shari

Brett and Lucy playing Santa!

Cathy opening her hot choolate maker from Cari!

Mike looking very excited!

Brett's favorite gift...

"I love presents!"