P-D's Famous Coconut Balls

Every year I make Coconut Balls at Christmas time. They are very labor intensive so they only get made once a year. This year Justin wanted to do the dipping of them into the chocolate. He did a wonderful job!


For those of you who may be eating coconut balls this year...he did NOT lick his finger until he was done making them!

All tired out from a long day Justin and Max (who is not allowed in the living room and follows the rules as you can see) take a little nap in the glow of the tree!

Tis the Season...

It would not be Christmas at our house without Tyler's nutcracker collection. When Tyler was very young my dad, Gpa, took Tyler to the Nutcracker ballet. He loved it! Gpa got him his first nutcracker and even got his name painted on it. From then on Tyler has gone to some production with Gpa every Christmas season. Tyler has also added a nutcracker to his collection every year. He has quite a variety: ranging from the usual looking to Darth Vader (on the left- too dark to really see him) and Homer Simpson, a snowman, santa and a Hawaiian Hula dancer.

Christmas at the P-D's

Christmas is always a wonderful time of family get togethers! Christmas Eve we go to mom and dad's house for a dinner of Swedish meatballs! We all caravan to their church in Olympia for the Candlelight service. After that we all gather at Mark and Gwen's house to open gifts. It is so nice that they open their home for all 17 of us to be able to be comfortable while we open gifts. The boys are getting easier to shop for as they get older. The gifts they want cost a lot more so they don't get as many...right! If only that were true. Every time I went out to shop for other people I ended up with more for my 2!

This year, along with their Christmas gifts, we got a special throw blanket for dad and mom. Dad drives my boys (and the carpool) to school on the days that I work. We really appreciate this and got them a little something to say "Thanks!". Earlier in the year, for my parents 40th anniversary the whole family got professional pictures taken. They turned out beautifully and we used the one of them and the grandchildren to put on the throw blanket. It turned out really well!

Christmas morning we open our gifts from "Santa" and then have mom and dad and Daniel over for brunch. After this we go over to James parents house for the afternoon.

We were all overly blessed with gifts as usual, but cannot forget the best gift of all that was given to us all so many years ago...when God sent His son to earth as a tiny babe that would become our Savior! Happy Birthday Jesus!

Merry Christmas from the P-D's

Hey,we just made total elves of ourselves. Check it out by clicking the link below.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1475142384

Annual Gingerbread House

Today was the day that our gingerbread house was created. I buy the kit from Costco and the boys do all the work. Tyler asked "Do I have to?" I tried to explain to him that sometimes you do things that you feel you are too old for just to make your mom happy. He then agreed to do his part. Max (our yellow lab) watched carefully as Justin worked on his part. I think that he was waiting for something to be dropped for him to clean up. It turned out to be a very nice house. It is one of those traditions that I enjoy having the boys do...no matter how old they get to be! Merry Christmas!!!