Christmas with the Hutchings

Christmas Eve was great. This is actually the first Christmas I have spent with my parents since I have been married. Most Utahans gasp at the thought, but my families big holiday is New Years. So we could care less if we saw each other on Christmas as long as we are together on New Years, which we have been for years and years. I consider Christmas Eve and Christmas morning a time to start and have traditions with my own little family, which right now consists of Ryan, little Jayna, and myself. So even though my parents were in-town we did the usual Hutchings family traditions. They are nothing special just a nice prime-rib dinner on Christmas Eve and a Christmas brunch. With two extra adults this year it kinda grossed me out how much food I make every Christmas just for the three of us. In years past we have always managed to find someone to join us for at least Christmas brunch though.

Dinner was wonderful. Ryan cooked the prime-rib perfect as usual. We made chipotle smashed potatoes, green beans, and a double batch of our favorite salad ( Salad De Maison ). After dinner everyone opened their Christmas Pajamas. That is everyone, but me. After I bought mine I had the shopping bag hanging on a door knob with the Pajamas in it, and a little certain someone with a cold blew her nose on my new pajamas. So mine were sadly already washed and put in my dresser.

Then we sang some Christmas songs with Jayna while she sat by the tree and jingled a chain of bells. It was fun to put her to bed knowing she had no clue about all the excitement that would take place when she would wake up.

Us adults played games the rest of the night and had homemade apple pie.

Christmas morning Ryan and I got a fire going down stairs, turned on the tree, got music playing and the video camera all setup and then woke everyone up to come open presents. Jayna actually slept in on Christmas morning, so we had to go wake her up too. Red on the other hand was already to go. Every year she somehow knows when it is Christmas morning. The presents can sit under the tree for weeks untouched by her, but when it is Christmas morning she hunts under the tree for her presents drags them out and goes to town opening them. She gets the present opening concept better than Jayna does. Jayna loved seeing the new toys and games she got, but didn't really get to into ripping the paper off to find them.

Ryan got me a much needed upgraded paper trimmer. So now if you receive an invitation to one of my parties you can admire the sharper crisper paper edges. I really am excited to use it. Heck, I cried a couple Christmases ago when I got a labeler. He also got me this super cute knit headband. I love it and can't wait to see how it looks after I get a haircut, since it even looks cute with my scraggly hair right now. I really need to pick up crocheting and knitting so I can make these for myself in every color.

I got Ryan two new tools for the kitchen. A mandolin and a chopper. So now he is looking for any excuse to slice and dice things. He also got a terabyte external hard-drive for the computer for christmas so we can store more movies with out taking up all the memory on our computer. So what does that mean for all of us? Movie nights!!!

We all got such wonderful fun gifts from family and friends too. So thank you everyone.

Our Christmas brunch was wonderful as always. We had a new addition of freshly juiced orange juice to the spread thanks to the millions oranges we received as a gift from our neighbor, and the kitchen aid juicer attachment I just had to run out and buy.

Jayna loved her playroom! We took video of her seeing it for the first time so I will try to post some of it if I can. She was so excited to see everything in it and even did a little dance. She was so excited to play with all the toys even though they were ones she has always had and played with. The new room made them all new to her again. She loves the playhouse, it was the hit of the room. She loves running in and out of it and saying hello to us through the windows. Ryan said she is just like me, because one of the first things she did while in her new playroom was pick up the little stools around the table in the middle of the room and take them into her playhouse and arrange them. He said we just can't have a house with out furniture, or go into a room and not rearrange it. It was really funny.

So Christmas was great. A fun lazy day just hanging out with family. Now I can stop cooking and baking until Thursday that is. Then it will all start up again with New Years and the great Lund fondue tradition.