Days & Times of the Sundbergs: The learning Christmas

I really feel like this is my first Christmas as a real ADULT...having Brian's family here, cooking the Christmas meal...it's kind of a lot of pressure for a novice! I have newfound respect for all that my mom has done through the years for us...planning and executing the complete holiday is very hard work and I can't imagine doing it with two kids underfoot...so from the bottom of my heart........thank you mom!!

I have learned so much in the past few days...about hosting family, cooking, getting along.....I'm on a huge learning curve.

We realized throughout the day that we had forgotten a few important items (pan to cook the prime rib in, rolls, chicken for the tortilla soup, rolling pin....) so Brian and Doug fought the crowds twice today.....

Brian's grandma kept asking, and I came to dread the question:

"Do you have....?"

Because usually the answer was no, and it was something else I had forgotten!!!

We had to take a group picture before we headed to church...it involved my camera perched precariously on the back of the sofa in order to get everybody in, but it turned out well.

I was determined to make my mom's recipe for sugar cookies this Christmas...it was always so fun to get my own cookies that I could decorate however I wanted....and they are so yummy!

Well, to make a long story short....Mom, now I know why we don't make those yummy sugar cookies very much anymore....THEY ARE HARD WORK!!!

But since I had Brian's grandma here who is a wonderful baker I was determined to give it a try....she was a huge help. Ok, she did most of it....but I was a good student and watched and learned.

After church, (and a few pieces of pie) we got down to business making and decorating the cookies. Let me explain about the wine bottle....it struck me this morning that I don't own a rolling pin! Oooops....that would make rolling out the cookie dough pretty tough. So I put that on Brian's list for a last minute run to the store....Wal-Mart was sold out of rolling pins (who would have thought??) But on his second trip out (oopsie, a few more forgotten items) he found a rolling pin at Target!! But it was $20 and we had a moment of cheapness and didn't buy it. It seemed like a good decision at the time....but when Brian's sweet grandma was using an old wine bottle to roll out the dough tonight we felt sooooo bad! It would have been well worth the $20!!!!

I call this picture "Happy Lauretta" because what I discovered today is that she just lights up when she gets in the kitchen and starts cooking or baking.