christmas time is here, happiness and cheer, fun for all that children call their favorite time of year

today was my first time being the hostess for the karpel kristmas. it was really exciting to know that i did not have to make the trip up 81 north this year. and at the moment i am in my pj's nestled in my bed, far far away from the cookies downstairs. overall the day was great. mom and george arrived around one with the prime rib all ready to go in the oven. and the keesler family arrived shortly after. we had shrimp, mom's pepper jelly, my buffalo chicken dip, and an awesome homemade cheese ball from britt to start the festivities with.

hannah is concentrating on her new magic trick book. she and jordan are both almost as tall as me, as jordan politely pointed out today! i cannot believe how big these two kids are.

jordan has a new addition- his braces!! of course aunt emily, the hygienist, had to start the spanish inquisition on how he is taking care of his teeth. even though i know he will do just fine. he even turned down a soda. of course he was a little bummed when grandma gave him his annual life savers. and of course this year she chose gummies.

here are hannah and jordan with their noses in their new books - hannah with her magic book and jordan with his guitar book. that is the interest for the moment!

britt is opening up her annual gift of polish pottery from her father. i also got a nice piece for my collection, which was a nice surprise. george always picks out each piece by himself. it is ironic because every year for his birthday i get him a michael ringer, and now he gives me polish pottery. it's all about the collecting!!

the gang laughing about one of the many funny things that were said today.

there was a slight theme this year with the gifts. it was rather "a christmas story-ish" jordan got his leg lamp t-shirt. hannah got a pair of pink footie pj's that were rather reminiscent of the bunny pj's. so we made her go try them on and then pose on the stairs. it was cheap entertainment!!

mom and george got billy some nice coasters (if you ever come to our house you would see that he is kind of a coaster freak). they are from the thousand islands museum and are a map of the river divided into 4 coasters. and of course he would not take a serious and nice picture and had to make a dorky face. oh well. just focus on the nice coasters!!

after we opened presents and let our munchies settle we moved on to dinner. the prime rib was accompanied by bearnaise and grandpa harold's horseradish that i had stocked away. we also had steamed green beans, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese (hannah's fav) and britt made her famous corn casserole. yeah. we had a lot of food.

out of all the things we had to eat today, there was one thing that i was most delighted to see my mother pull out of her basket. KOLACHKY!! these little bundles of joy are the most awesome cookies ever. and there are some in my kitchen as i type this that i might ha..........ok, i am back. i just had to go eat one.








britt made delish almond cookies too. i also kept some of these for my own eating pleasure.

and even with all of these cookies lying around i still managed to have some people eat my pecan pie. it was the first one i ever made. it was a big hit with george and jordan. i however have no room at the moment. breakfast??

britt was showing the cookies some LOVE!!!
hannah and jordan hanging out at the table. it looks as if hannah was tipping back the drinks!! no, they all are not hers! billy, being the good son in law, and doing ALL the dishes!!!! after dessert it was guitar hero time. glen played the axe for a bit.

do you think the kids look happy that dad is hogging the game??
jordan's turn!i think george is pondering whether he should be the next guitar hero!
mom and britt relaxing


and after many, many test shots with the self-timer on the camera, we managed to get a nice group photo to end the all too perfect karpel kristmas 2008!!