Christmas Day Photos ...

We had a great Christmas at our house.

I managed to get up early enough to make cinnamon rolls.  My parents were able to join us for brunch and opening presents which was really nice.  My husband and father-in-law insisted for the umpteenth year in a row that we include pickled herring in the Christmas breakfast menu.  It's some Swedish thing apparently.  Somehow they think this is a tradition.  But I don't argue.  I just cook some bacon to balance things out.  I wish I had some photos of breakfast to share with you, but pickled herring isn't exciting to look at.

My little one, however, was all about the excitement ...

My 3 year-old exclaimed ... this is my favorite thing! ... when she saw her new kitchen.

She immediately figured out how to turn on the oven and cook some pizza.

She also received a little digital camera, which is really nice since she's always trying to sneak mine away from me to take just one picture Mom!

How cute is the little chef's hat and apron?

My son is happy with his new RipStik.

If you can see outside behind him, it was too rainy to go out and ride it though.

My oldest is a huge Clue fan.  She was so excited to get the Harry Potter edition of the board game plus the movie Clue.  Which has several different endings I hear.  We managed to get in a game while I was preparing dinner.  Just for the record, I have never lost at the game of Clue.  So now at least my kids have a goal when they play ... 

beat Mom!

For our Christmas dinner I did a prime rib, with mashed potatoes and gravy.  I threw in a side dish of some assorted braised greens, just for fun.  Yes, I love greens ... chard, spinach, mustard ... I even used some beet tops.  It's super healthy.  I'm just passing along some nutritional FYI there.

 Then I made Pioneer Woman's Whiskey Glazed Carrots.  Let me just tell you this ... you HAVE to make these carrots!  Here's why ... 

I do not like cooked carrots.  I just don't.  I'm sorry.  

But ... we get carrots in our weekly produce box.  Like every week!  That's a lot of carrots.  I will juice them, but that's about it.  Well, after seeing Ree's recipe for these carrots ... I thought what the heck, it looked so easy and at least I'll have another side dish for Christmas dinner.  They were sooooooo yummy!  That glaze ... it just oozed delicious.  Seriously.  So needless to say, I will be excited to get carrots every week from now on.

I made a Christmas rum cake for dessert.  

Wait a minute ... whiskey glazed carrots, rum cake ... 

no wonder we had such a happy Christmas!

We ended the evening with a few hands of poker.  My son received a World Series of Poker set.  The kind where the chips click together with that nice chip-clicking sound when you play with them.

So there's a little glimpse into our apparently liquor-enhanced, friendly gambling, sort of Christmas celebration!  

There was more ... a lot more ...

 But look what my 2 girls end up playing with ...