Christmas with the JAKS

This past Sunday we hosted Christmas dinner. After it was all done, I turned to the Hubs and commented, "It's stressful and crazy but I know why my Mom does it." You see, my Mom hosts pretty much every major holiday at my parents house and it's not just for nine people like ours was, it's more like 30 or so. I don't know how she manages to pull off such amazing meals and wonderful opportunities for everyone to get together but some how she does, every single time. So, thanks Mom!

For our dinner I decided to go with the ever traditional Christmas feast of Chicken Parmigiana, broccoli, rolls, Texas sheet cake, Hubby's famous kolacky's (sounds like kolatchkies), and melted snowman cookies. All in all I'd say everything turned out pretty darn yummy. I think next year, to save ourselves a bit of time and headache, we'll make something that cooks in the oven instead of on the stove top but the chicken parm turn out so yummy that I really can't complain and considering we started out with only 6 chicken breasts and still ended up with leftovers (since we pounded them thin and then cut them in half) it was a good budget-conscious meal as well.

Here are a few picture from our day:

Chef Hubs cooking the chicken

My melted snowmen cookies. I was pretty proud of how they turned out.
You have to have a twisted sense of humor to think they are funny but I love them.
I'm not the best at decorating but that's the cool thing about these, you don't have to be!

I used Fruit Roll-Ups for the scarves and Mini M&M's
for the buttons. The rest is Wilton's decorating gel.

The Bear got a Toy Story Mr. Potato Head set. It comes with two "heads" and all the
pieces to make Spud Lightyear, Jessie, and Woody. She loves it. Thanks Grandpa!

This was another huge hit from Grandpa. After she
opened it she carried the comforter up to her room,
made me put it on her bed and then told me to turn
out the lights and close the door. She wanted to go
to sleep with it right that second!

This beautiful pink blanket was made by K's amazing cousin.
Isn't it awesome? I can't believe she made it! It's very soft and snuggly :)