Iron Chef: Houston

 What a wonderfully busy month December was!  We had so many great parties, events, and activities to fill the daily blog posts that I only today discovered that I completely left one of those events undocumented! 

Back on the 14th, we had our final Iron Chef of the year, and the theme was chocolate!  This was a popular one, and we had plenty of goodies to taste. 

I made a chocolate chili with green chili cornbread.  {The winner for taste!}

 Chef Sharon made chocolate chip cookies. 

 Chef Alison planned on chocolate zucchini coconut bread, but the store had no zucchini.  She settled on chocolate eclairs and fruit with chocolate dipping sauce. 

Chef Liz made chocolate cupcakes with a peppermint frosting.  {Winner for presentation.}

Chef Timee brought homemade hot chocolate.

 Chef Megan made chocolate-covered bacon.  {A winner for creativity!}

Chef Anh-Thu whipped up some chocolate donuts.

 Here's Chef Melanie's salad with vinaigrette.

 Chef Jan made a chocolate and peanut butter pie. 

Chef LesLee made smores brownies, but I didn't get a picture.

And, here's a few photos from the party:

 All the chefs:

After tasting and voting, we had a white-elephant gift exchange, and there were some *real* winners!

I'm so grateful to have these great Iron Chefs to join every month! 

Let it Snow?

 It snowed on Christmas day just a few hours north of us, but we just got gusts of wind, a few sprinkles of nearly freezing raindrops, and cooler weather. 

The boys decided to make their own snow with the empty bags from a recent grocery trip. 

You can definitely tell we live somewhere it doesn't snow.  I'm just glad they had fun and were able to make their own "snow."

Fancy for Church

 We had some great Christmas gifts to add to our Sunday attire this morning.  Most of us were happy about the additions.  {Or, maybe we were just happy to be HOME after church.....} 

Mom--happy in her new headband from Emmy:

 Kyle--happy in his new PAISLEY tie from Paisley!

Evan--happy in HIS new paisley tie.

 Stephen---Really happy in his new Paisley tie that I forced picked out for him to wear today, maybe a little TOO happy.   

 Or, maybe he's just making faces. 

Ryan--not at all happy about having to put his new paisley tie back on to take a picture. 

Po--once that tie was off and the collar was popped, he was ready to smile for the camera. 

I think we all looked pretty fancy in our new accessories today! 

Christmas Day

Santa came!  He really came, and he "did good." 

The boys opened their stockings and saw the gifts from Santa first.  

A swing set that was SO BIG it wouldn't fit inside the sleigh, so Santa is sending some elves to deliver it in a big truck?  Awesome.

After a breakfast of French Toast Bake and bacon, we read the Christmas story, and the boys set up the characters.  

We opened the presents that had been under our tree, and we were SO excited for so many of them.  It was a very merry Christmas.

Evan LOVED this talking bear and accompanying book.  He kept trying to kiss the bear and climb into the box along with her.

The 3 older boys loved their "shoots."

Then, we "got ready" in more Christmas pjs and headed over for Christmas, Part 2.

Evan got the coolest toy.  It kept everyone engaged and not really wanting to open anything else!

Grandma got a new coat, perfect for all those *rough* Houston winters.

Baseball stuff! 

A horny toad neck tie with ruby eyes!

A musical riding toy! All the boys love this one! 

I kept trying to capture Po's reactions to all the excitement.  He kept yelling/growling "WOOOOOOW!" 


JAKE!

Grandma loved the traditional calendar, and Evan decided to help her open a few gifts.

Kyle and Stephen both got really cool Star Wars t-shirts.

I love my purse and can't wait to cook with all the great new tools the Iron Chefs sent!

We took a little break for some food.  I love how Evan and Po are "close talkers" with Grandpa.

Evan also LOVES Maxo.

More close talking.

What a fun day!  The boys sure were tired! 

We had another wonderful Christmas!  Thank you, thank you to all.  It's amazing to get to experience the joy even more through the excitement and happiness of those 3 boys.