Mommy Musings: It's Christmas!

Santa and his elves stayed up awfully late trying to get the bike for Madelyn and dollhouse for Kaitlyn put together. He also snuck in to their rooms and left them candy canes full of candy.

Kaitlyn excited to see her dollhouse.

Kaitlyn checked to see if Belle (gift from Madelyn) can play in the dollhouse too.

Madelyn could not wait to go outside to ride her bike. We took a break from opening presents to go for a test ride.

Kaitlyn flew like a fairy. Thank you Aunt Niki and John!!

So many presents...

Madelyn tested out the Leap Frog computer from Uncle Tim.

Madelyn was not willing to part with her bowl of M&M's from Santa. The candy cane plastic made it difficult to eat them.

Uncle Tim made his delicious breakfast plate after helping cook.

Buttermilk pancakes, sausage (one link missing), and fresh oranges and grapefruit slices. Yum!!

Out for a real ride on Madelyn's new bike. Kaitlyn also used her new skates from Gamma Linda and Pa Clinton.

Uncle Tim and Pa Mark before dinner. Pa Mark and Mary Ann arrived early enough to share in the Christmas fun.

Everyone ready to eat a delicious dinner.

We feasted on crab cakes (great job guys), a Bibb Lettuce Salad (thank you Thomas Keller) and grilled vegetables batons. Of course, the adults enjoyed a nice Robert Sinskey Pinot Noir too!

Kaitlyn at dinner - this time she tried and ate most of her crab cake. Yahoo!!

And the feasting continued with dessert...
Dobash from a special St. Louis bakery and a Paris Brest (French pastry) made by mommy. We also had some Traverse City cherry pie hiding in the background. Oh, this was dessert heaven!!

The Paris Brest is a Christmas Eve tradition for some folks in France, so I decided to try it for Christmas night. It was pate choux dough on the top, bottom and in the middle. The pastry cream had a homemade almond paste infused in it.