Cheers!

It's me, Andy and B for New Year's Eve. B was at his friend B's overnight birthday party last night and brought him, along with IR and IB home this afternoon to play video games so he's spending the evening alone. I suspect he'll be sleeping before midnight.

L went out to Naperville to spend the night with her friend, J, at her New Year's Eve party. We did a tour of J's new house and I'd love to have all that space! They don't have a basement, but J's room has a bathroom of its own and a walk-in closet!

E took the car and picked up her California friend, F, for some afternoon shopping then met up with the BF P at his friend's house for a party. E plans to bring F back for a sleepover.

Big news of the day was that today was Aunt A's last time to deliver the mail. I think she picked the coldest day of December to be her last. Nothing like going out with a bang! She's now officially retired!

Shoe smell

Not sure why but Muffles would not leave B's friend IR's shoes alone. Kind of gross, cat.

Christmas beer

Andy received some Christmas beer when we were at the farm so we decided to give them a try. We decided we liked the one on the left better.

Party, party

B had his friends IB, IR and B spend the night. Andy woke up at 4 a.m. and they were still awake, though winding down. IR left early this morning, but the other two stuck around for most of the afternoon. E went to a movie with her friend, A, and when they came back to the house, their California friend, F, joined them and the boys for a loud game of Cards Against Humanity.

Tonight, we went to Andy's cousin's C house for her annual cousins holiday party. It was a small group this year, but it was nice. I made little smokies wrapped in crescent rolls and some wrapped with bacon and covered with brown sugar. L brought along quarters for their slot machine and won a few. Surprisingly, she didn't spend all her money.

Christmas dinner

A few pictures from yesterday's Christmas dinner:

E and Grandma Barbara

Waiting to start dinner - ham, potato casserole, sweet potatoes, Hawaiian salad and rolls.

The cousins' table

L (passing on the ham dinner though she did eat her fair share of rolls) and and cousin N playing with Legos.

B and E wait for the Yankee gift exchange to begin.

The cousins played a game of Cards Against Humanity.

And the gift exchange begins.

Aunt A with her new wall art.

Christmas morning

B had been up since 5 a.m. and opened his stocking. We finally decided to wake the girls at 8 a.m., after the rest of us had breakfast. We opened gifts from oldest to youngest. That made me go first and I got a lovely gold infinity bracelet from Tiffany's from Andy, modeled in this photo by E.

Andy got a new briefcase from me. His old one has seen better days.

E got a purple vegan leather (whatever that is) purse from us and a rope-climbing kit. She goes rock climbing with friends occasionally and Andy joked that she now has to choose a college with an awesome rock wall.

B got two WiiU games he's been wanting, along with a amiibo of Yoshi and a little travel alarm clock. He falls asleep sometimes on the sofa and gets upset when he doesn't wake up on time so hopefully this will fix that.

L, our budding movie maker, got a video camera and Disney video game. She also got a talking Dalek in her stocking that she loves. Oh, and all the kids got some cash, which they seemed pretty excited about.

Here's B and L searching for the pickle ornament. E couldn't be bothered to get off the sofa to look for it. L claims she has never one so the fix was sort of in - L was going to find it this year.

And she did, pulling the hanger from the ornament as she ripped it from the tree.

The pickle present was a six-pack of Coke. And here's the Christmas morning aftermath:

Christmas Eve

We had a pretty calm Christmas Eve. Andy went into work but came home a bit early. I spent the day putting together a breakfast casserole for tomorrow morning, potato casserole for the family Christmas and a lasagna for dinner. I also put together this cookie plate for tomorrow's party:

We had planned to go to the Christmas Eve service at church, but B had his friends B, IR and IB over and L had her friend N over. The boys went to Pete's for dinner and it was a little late to get ready for church by time they got back. Nice planning, B. I think that might have been his plan all along. It was a nice, quiet night at home watching "A Christmas Story."

E made a fleece blanket for Andy with his special request that the ties not be at the top. Apparently, the little pieces of fleece irritate him when they hit his face. She sewed an edge on the sewing machine and spent the afternoon tying the sides and ends. He said it was perfect.

The kids did get to open one present - pajama pants for everyone!

E's gingerbread house

Decorating gingerbread houses was one of the activities at E's Girl Scout Christmas party on Friday.

Real and stuffed

Look who I found hiding among L's stuffed animals.

Before we headed back

We were all up pretty early this morning so Andy took B out for about an hour's drive around Staunton. Here he is driving the Buick down the road in front of Mom's house. He's trying to rack up hours on his driver's permit. It would be very helpful if he'd write down all the hours we've driven with him in his log. We'll be working on that.

Mom was able to bring her bird, Beanie, into the living room since Kumar went home with Cindy last night.

A daddy-daughter moment.

The three kids with Grandma.

We stopped at Normal on the way home to eat at Avanti's. We went to The Alamo after lunch and picked up an ISU shirt for Andy and a sweatshirt for me. L gave Reggie the Redbird a thumbs up.

Staunton Christmas

We headed to the farm this morning for the Bentrup Christmas. We drew names to decide the order of who opened presents first. Somehow, Andy got to go first.

He received some craft beers, a Best Buy gift card, golf balls and one of those mats so his phone won't slide off the dash of the car. He was also one of only two $1 winners of our annual Christmas Bingo games. Twenty-two instant lottery cards and only two winners. Sadness.

E got her long-sought-after "Games of Thrones" book set, along with a rice cooker and a Cards Against Humanity game. She wanted to play with the family but we thought it was best she waited to play with friends. Not sure it's a very family friendly game.

L's favorite gift had to be this "Dr. Who" tardis mini iPad case from Kevin. He gave her a "Dr. Who" gift last year, too. I'm sensing a theme here.

This is B, cousin T's fiancee.

Kevin got "King of the Hills" DVDs from us.

Cindy indulged my weird sense of picture-taking and put her new magnifying glass up to her eye.

B got root beer, lots of little bottles of Coke, a Target gift card and two pairs of pajama pants. He likes cozy things so he's all set.

Cousin T with some DVDs and CDs.

We gave mom a small stockpot and a small, covered glass cake pan. She also got a gift card to Starbucks since she'll be traveling to Hawaii near her birthday and might need some caffeine when she's waiting in the airports.

I got some gift cards, Yankee Candle tarts, little Christmas tree candles, wine, gloves and a nice Christmas platter.

And last, but not least, cousin A got to open his presents.

Oops, can't forget Kumar!

Break from finals

B had three finals yesterday and one last one today. Since he could take it easy on the studying last night, he took a break and put together a Puzzle Ball I found while sorting toys at the Economy Shop. We thought it was an ornament, but when he got it all together we realized it's just a tchotchke. It's kind of cute, though.

More cake pops

L is at it again - this time making Christmas tree cake pops. She had her neighborhood friend, N, over to help until the other neighborhood girl, B, came over and was coughing everywhere. There's a huge percentage of Oak Park kids out of school with the flu and E and B have finals this week, so I told L they all had to leave. L finished the cake pops later. This batch is headed to the farm for Christmas.

Cookies, cookies and more cookies

L was helping me decorate our sixth batch of cookies (so far) this season. Not sure how many more we'll get done before our Christmas celebrations begin!

Cat in the tree

Muffles keeps jumping up on the mantel and I didn't think much of it until I realized he never jumped back down. I walked past the tree and there he was - lying in it on some of the branches that are at the height of the mantel. I have no idea how long he's been doing this. Guess that could partially explain why the garland is messed up every morning.

Can you find Muffles?