home in the rain: Merry Post-Christmas!

I can't believe Christmas is already over! Time is just whizzing by!

We had a great Christmas filled with family, friends and presents. I think Quinn got started opening presents 2 weeks early, which was a good thing though, because she was pretty overwhelmed Christmas day.

Here are some of the highlights of our Christmas holiday...

Peacock Lane and Food Carts

We took a trip to Peacock Lane - a short street where all the houses are lit up with Christmas lights. The night we went they closed off the street to cars. We stopped at the food carts for dinner first. We had 4 types of Norwegian Lefse from Viking Soul Food, a 'po boy type sandwich from EuroTrash and Kellie and I shared a delicious creme brule with a torched marshmallow on top from Sweet Pea's - that was the best part of the night.

Kellie finally eating some real food hahaha

Q getting loved on by Sydney and Marcos

I can't remember what this was called, but it was
chicken topped with slaw in a bun and it was good

Marshall and Quinn sharing hot chocolate #2

A street where every house is decorated with lights

Christmas Crafts

We made Christmas Tree ornaments out of Popsicle sticks.

I was going to put a picture of her in them and give them as gifts,
but alas they are still sitting on a cabinet. Maybe next year...

We learned this craft in Q's art class. You take shaving cream, put in different food colors, stir it around, lay construction paper on top for minute to let the color soak in,...

and viola! You have tie-died paper.

This is the end product. I cut hearts out of the paper and
glued them to a ribbon, then strung them up on her wall.

We did a lot of baking the week before Christmas. We made pink sugar cookies, biscotti, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, candied almonds, and chocolate bark (above). Q was such a good helper!

She also helped Marshall make cupcakes. And by helped I mean licked things clean.
Marshall did all the work including decorating them.

Quinn approved.

I made a ton of presents, but of course I did not take any pictures of them. So, I will just tell you what I made and you can use your imagination (unless you happened to get said presents)...I made peppermint and lemongrass lip balms, citrus salt, vanilla sugar, hot pads, make-up bags and owl ornaments (I got the pattern from Juicy Bits). Wait! You're in luck - I have a picture of Quinn's owl...

Visitors

We had a full house! Marshall's parents and brother Alex and wife Christina all stayed with us. Quinn has decided to call Nana Mags and Papa Denny just "Papa Mags." On Christmas Eve we had French Onion soup and salad. It was delicious and so easy! Poor Sydney made the most perfect chocolate cheesecake, but just before leaving her house she dropped it on the floor hahahaha. She was crushed. On Christmas we had a ham (that took forever to cook), veggies, stuffing and rolls. I made a trifle for desert and Syd brought over some wonderful pumpkin bread. The next day we went downtown and did some exploring and the day after that we took a drive to the ocean. I guess we should have checked the weather before leaving because it was super rainy. We decided to check out Ecola state park and paid the $5 fee. It would have been nice if the lady told us there were hurricane force winds in the parking lot, but instead she told us it was whale watching season...Marshall, Maggie and Denny decided to brave the rain and the winds while Quinn and I stayed in the nice warm car.