Another Busy Weekend

Phew, what a weekend!  It was jam packed full of fun, family and friends!  Doesn’t get better than that!

Friday I received a package in the mail for the Swag Swap I did, hosted by Southern Girl Gets Fit.  My partner in crime was Karie over at Carrot Cake and Jeans.  I cannot tell you how excited I was to get this box!  The stuff inside was A-mazing!  But I am waiting till tomorrow to post on that because I have so much to post and show about the weekend.  So stay tuned, you’ll want to see all the goodies I got so you can be jealous – ha ha!

So back up to Saturday.  My mom came over and we made Christmas goodies all morning.  We made caramels, peanut butter fudge, haystacks, peanut clusters, sugar cookies, peanut brittle, Ritz peanut butter sandwiches, covered pretzel balls and Oreo truffles.  Can you say sugar and fat?  My sister couldn’t make it or we would have had even more stuff!  Oh my!

The boys were big helpers with the sugar cookies, here they are helping cut them out.

The flour on Bren’s nose cracks me up!

Saturday night we went to the BIG big city to visit friends.  The Big 10 championship game was on so we watched that and had some yummy food.  The host’s made some amazing chili, supposed to be getting that recipe from the hostess soon.  The Wisconsin Badgers totally CREAMED Nebraska’s Huskers (yahoo!) so was happy with the outcome of that game! 

And yesterday.  My mom’s family started what we call Tree Hopping 19 years ago.  The adults (my aunts and uncles) were sitting around 19 years ago talking about how they decorate their houses for Christmas but no one sees all their handy work so they created Tree Hopping.  We go from house to house checking out the decorations and loading up on snacks and beverages at each house.  It is an entire afternoon of family togetherness.  I just love it and look forward to it every year!  In my mom’s family there are 5 siblings who take part, plus my Grandma’s house.  Add in all the grandkids and great grandkids and we have full houses!  Yesterday was 60 degrees (totally un-Christmas like, boo) but it was great because the kids could play outside so the noise level wasn’t quite as high as it could have been. Ha!

And finally, our elf Dynamite made his first appearance Saturday morning.  Here is where we found him this morning.

Hopefully tonight Dynamite will be a little more creative in his hiding spot.  I think he likes to start off small so the boys can get their finding skills warmed up. 

Well Friends, time to get the boys ready for the day.  I’ll see you tomorrow!

Erin