ww: christmas 2010 edition.

I was so excited about Christmas Eve this year! I had been having an itch to cook a big meal and I knew this was my chance!

I immediately turned to my Pioneer Woman cookbook because I knew she wouldn't let me down!

The Menu:

ONION STRINGS

These were TO DIE FOR. I mean seriously. I can't brag enough about them. BEST onion rings I have EVER had. However, I will tell you that they are pretty time consuming! So definitely allow yourself enough time {I quadrupled the recipe and it took me over an hour just to fry them!}

CHICKEN SPAGHETTI

I have had many friends rave about this dish and it was FABULOUS! Not too cheesy, not too chickeny, just perfect!

BURGUNDY MUSHROOM

I'm not a mushroom fan AT ALL, but I knew the majority of my family was so I went with that as the side dish. When I first decided on this, I only looked at the ingredients to make my shopping list and not the actual recipe. Fast forward to Christmas Eve at Noon: I was catching up on my blogs and came across one from PW that said she knew her Grandma was starting the Burgundy Mushrooms on their 9 hour long journey! I frantically jumped up to get her cookbook and read through the recipe...sure enough. simmer for 9 hours. HOLY CRAP.

Luckily, mine simmered for 7.5 hours and they came out perfect!

We kept up the tradition this year and each of us opened our one gift on Christmas Eve....Mine was a Christmas Candle with an "E" on it, despite my REPEATED requests to quit buying me things with "E's" on them because I have MILLIONS. {I received 2 this year, hoping for none in 2011!}

We played Wii until the wee hours of the morning! I realized that I am completely terrible at Mario Kart! Maybe because I was distracted by this 

{That would be my brother in his cut off shirt and ghetto arm brace...how can you not stare?}

FINALLY after 25 years I was able to score SOME kind of freedom on Christmas Morning. The short story is that I have been forced every year to wait upstairs in my room until the parents we're "ready" {aka camera's and video camera's out and armed at the bottom of the stairs} for us to come down. And every year we had to stop at the end of the stairs to take a "cousin's picture". SOOOOO ridiculous. 

This year we compromised. I came downstairs early and got breakfast started and after everyone was awake we went to the bottom of the stairs and faked a picture.

{You can tell we were all REALLY excited about this!}

Next year I'm hoping to finagle sleeping at my own house on Christmas Eve!

On to the good part: 

Since I got my new bed as my Christmas present in October I SERIOUSLY did not expect anything!

Instead I was so blessed by my parents and received some awesome gifts!

a few pairs of new shorts!

a new ipod!

and the best gift of the day

This picture is not reenacted. My mom perfectly snapped the picture and captured my genuine excitement. I was like a 5 year old all over again!

I think this was the best Christmas anyone in our family has ever had! 

I wasn't able to do a lot for my family since I lost my job, but I managed to paint my mom something for the house, get my brother a Starbucks gift card, and buy my dad this amazing DVD about the History of OU Football. {which by the way we watch and it was AMAZING. SOO interesting!} I could write a whole blog about it, but I'll refrain since no one would find it interesting but me!

We had an awesome Christmas dinner with Turkey, Dressing, Green Bean Casserole, and LOTS of Pumpkin Pie! We all messed with our new gadgets while we watched a few movies and headed to bed at a decent time so we could get up early for a FULL day of day after Christmas Shopping!

I started to get sick Sunday afternoon when we finished shopping and was so weak I had to stay an extra night at my parents, but finally after 6 days, I slept in my own bed last night and it was INDESCRIBABLE!

Cheers to the best Christmas!