another busy christmas weekend

yet another whirlwind weekend! Saturday was jammed packed - met with some girlfriends for a little Christmas breakfast/gift exchange (one of my only relaxing minutes of the day!). after the gathering, i headed home, only to walk right back out the door. we drove to Hilliard to visit with Pete's grandparents. I just have to say, they are absolutely the cutest two people EVER! They are 93 and 94 and sharp as tacks - next year they will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary!!! Our world certainly needs more of those couples around. What a joy to spend time with them. By the time we made it home from the visit we had less than an hour to get ready for the Messana Christmas/welcome home Joe party! Aunt Lex and uncle john came to watch the girls... BLESS THEM! :)
Sunday we celebrated dads retirement with a lunch at Roadhouse - YUM! Then we headed back to nana & papa's house to celebrate ellia's birthday with them (since they'll be in fl when her bday rolls around). spent the rest of the evening at home wrapping away!
At this pace.... well... lets just say my body doesn't handle the stress real well so I think its time to take it down a notch - try to RELAX and ENJOY this week.
Christmas shopping is done. Christmas wrapping is almost done. Christmas baking is almost done.... I think we're on the right track :)

p.s. best part of the whole weekend: sitting on the floor wrapping presents while Pete and BOTH girls were cracking up watching kung-fu panda. i LOVE hearing them laugh... all 3 of them. :)

ohhhh yea! and how can i forget. amongst all the craziness was TONs of baking and gift-prep. This year we did lots of my homemade butter cookies with icing AND i tried my hand at making HOMEMADE marshmallows & hot cocoa mix. Both of which, I think, turned out marvelously! I've never done marshmallows before, but they were surprisingly easy to make and taste wonderful in the cocoa! We packaged things up for some neighbors and friends and of course, the postman :) check it out...