christmas day

who wakes up every morning before the sun rises?  oh yeah, the coombs household...nothing new on christmas day!...except we woke up to a white christmas!!

we had a really nice morning--the boys got the requested saws (santa must have found a deal at tj maxx!)

an awesome mailbox set--pace has lately been into deliveries and putting stamps on letters, etc.  this toy kept the boys occupied pretty much all morning.  another awesome tj maxx find!

the other hit item of the day:  a "mote controlled" front end loader from uncle jon erik.  the boys had fun scooping and dumping their candy.

and then it was time to bundle up and play outside for hours and hours!  david kept the boys (or should i say the boys kept david) outside for a looooong time while i was working on our christmas feast. 

i had no problem going out to eat on thanksgiving, but christmas was definitely a day to stay home.  i made mac&cheese and (vegan) hot dogs for the boys with strawberries and whipped cream...

and when they were done, david and i sat down to pan-seared cod with an orange tarragon butter sauce, roasted butternut squash, roasted potatoes and sautéed green beans with dried cranberries, and a savory artichoke dip and a sweet cream cheese almond and dried apricot dip.

this is what i was dreading...dishes...and i still had to make a grapefruit pound cake...

the rest of the afternoon was passed with whack-a-mole, an anatomy/italian lesson (so funny that one "organizer" sheet was in italian!  the rest of the papers and book the set came with were english!)--i loved building the body with the boys.  max was pretty hilarious--the organs in this set are squishy, and max always said, "squishy, ick!" and made a "yuck" sound.  he didn't want to touch them.

merry christmas!