Snow! .

Gotta love the snow! I'm finding that I like it a lot better now that I don't have to drive to work in it!! :) It's so pretty! These were taken at about 2am today so as you can imagine, we woke up to a beautiful yard! :D

Silly Hats .

We went to the party store today. Not only are we looking for some cool, yet inexpensive, New Year's Eve party favors but we're in search of some kind of cute 1st-Year-Birthday-themed supplies! We've got to get ready already for Mac's 1st birthday!! Uff-da. This is gonna be tough. In case you haven't noticed, I'm the one who's barely ready for Christmas when it arrives. How am I gonna be able to manage my kiddo's birthday just 1 week after Jesus' birthday?? Well, it looks like I'm gonna have to figure something out! It's just not kosher to run late for a child's 1st birthday. Right? But. I digress.

The fun thing about our trip to the party store was that we stumbled upon all sorts of party hats! I think any kind of hat you could imagine was there. Well. We just had to grab a few of the cutest hats for Mac to try on! It was fun to be silly together. I think Mac learned how to say "Ta-Da!" that night. :) Brent and I would clap and carry on and say "Ta-Da!" just as soon as we put the hat on him to distract him from reaching up there to pull it off before I could get a picture! Here's what we found:

The New Year Top Hat, of course! Both Dad & Mac with the Top Hats - wait, where's Mac?? ;)

The Lobster Hat!

The Viking Hat The Parrot Hat The Court Jester Hat! He is a funny kid!

I guess all that fun wore him out! ;)

Uh-Ohhh! .

Well, I guess this is what we get for leaving the bag of tortilla chips where Mac can grab them!! Oopsies!! :)

Of course, now they're even more accessible for him to pick up and munch on! "Hi mom, look what I've got!"

"Why, yes, thank you! I don't mind if I do." :D

Christmas Card .

I don't think I forgot to send this to anyone this year... but just in case I did, here's our 2009 Christmas picture card:

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!

Oyster Stew .

A tradition for our family normally held on Christmas Eve, we did things a little differently this year. To accommodate for my sister's schedule and because my mom was in town, we made our Oyster Stew for dinner on Christmas Day!

It's been a tradition for us for years - even since early childhood - for both of our families. So, for our first Christmas as husband and wife (and maybe because of Brent's love for all creatures [read: food] from the sea), there was no arguing about what we were going to have for dinner now-and-forever-more on Christmas Eve.

For the first few years of our marriage, we went to my folks' place... since they always made the hugest-pot-ever of the stuff and invited loads of friends over to help them eat it. Since living in Idaho, we've had to make it ourselves. And who better to ask for the best Oyster Stew recipe in the Pacific Northwest than my step-dad, Bill? No one... Bill made the best!

Now, for Bill... ok, and Brent too... oh, who am I kidding? For all the men, it was about the oysters. So into this huge "vat" of Oyster Stew went about 6 store-bought cans of oysters and 4 jars of small-medium oysters from the fish market! For me... and, dare I say, most of the women... the broth is what's preferable. And who could resist?? Especially after "enhancing" the oystery flavor with several quarts of half & half, butter, onion and garlic. Mmmmmm!!

And as we sat down to partake of Bill's Oyster Stew Special (BOSS) this year, we are: reminded of his wonderful cooking, saddened that he's not here to enjoy it with us this time, and grateful that he shared his recipe and this tradition with us... to be carried on! Thanks Bill.

Brent's bowl... (oyster city)........... My bowl... (no oyster party here). :)

Mac even tried it (the broth, that is) and liked it!! I guess we'll have to see if he still likes it next year! ;D

Santa Was Here .

We opened a couple of gifts last night but saved the majority of them for this morning. And then we opened the stockings and Santa gifts! I'm quite sure that Santa had fun shopping... er... making toys for a certain little someone this year! What fun! It was exciting to see Mac rip through the bows and wrapping paper! Although, I think he would've been content to stop there and just feast on the paper and ribbon! But we encouraged him to forge ahead until he had the entire gift displayed, for all to see. :D
It wasn't hard to figure out which gift was the All-Time Fave! Both Daddy and Mac are thoroughly enjoying the Mega Bloks! I'm sure they'll be a big hit until Mac is old enough to start playing with the real Legos. :) Until then...
The poor little guy... apparently we wore him out with all this gift opening! Who knew you could get tired on Christmas morning?! I suppose when you're an almost-one-year old, it's bound to happen. ;)

Christmas Eve .

Lunch at our place. Opened gifts with Jodi and family. Christmas Eve service at Nampa 1st. Then Brent, Mac and I came home to relax while Mom, Jodi and kids went to Joe's house to open more Christmas gifts with Joe's family. A busy day. Yet fun and meaningful.

Setting the table, getting ready for our Christmas Eve lunch. Jodi and Joe.

And of course, our little Reindeer:
By the way, Mac took his first steps all by himself today!!! Such a big boy now! I'm sure a video is soon to follow. :)

Little Drummer Boy .

Either that, or he's going to be a choir director! I think he's almost keeping to the beat, too! Fun stuff!

Tuesday .

Mom (a.k.a. G'ma Linda) is able to be here with us for this whole week of Christmas! What a treat! She's been here for about 4 days now and I think Mac is finally getting used to having her around! Tonight everyone came to our place for dinner and games! We had some wonderful roast beef (that we got from a friend), potatoes, carrots, rolls and jello salad. Sooo tasty! Plus we had lots left overs... which Brent always loves! We'll be able to make two or three good casseroles from all that's left! After dinner, we played Scattergories - that was fun! Jacob (Jodi's youngest) really wanted to play the game but he didn't want to be on a team with anybody and he's not very good at reading by himself yet. So he ended up entertaining Mac! It was so cute! Mac was really giggling! I wish I had gotten some video footage of it. I think it's safe to say, Mac likes his cousin Jacob! :)

Early Christmas Gift .

G'ma & G'pa Jackson sent an early Christmas gift to Mac! We had fun opening it... and, as you can see, he liked eating the paper too! :) G'ma Linda was here so she got to watch all the excitement too!

Daddy's Bench #.

This is a little bench that daddy made when he was younger. G'ma & G'pa thought it might be nice for us to keep it here for Mac to play with when he gets a little older. And I think some minor adjustments need to be made to it. Well, he found it and was scootin' it around. So, I had to get some pics. :)

Where's Mac??

Mac was being so quiet as one point today, I had to actually look for him! He had found a nice, cozy spot in the corner to play with some ribbon he grabbed from mommy's gift wrap bag! Funny boy! :)

Gramma's Visit --

G'ma Linda got into town yesterday. She's here this weekend mostly for Jessica and Jensina. They're getting baptized tomorrow at church and she wanted to be here for this special occasion!

But tonight everyone's at our house visiting, snacking, playing games, coloring and baking Shrinky Dinks and just havin' some plain ol' fun.

I have to point out that Mac is just too clever. We had selected this particular spot for the Christmas tree not just because it's in front of the window... but in order to deter Mac from getting to the CDs and DVDs. Well. Silly us. He just crawled under the tree to get to them!

Another thing. His poor little forehead looks like it's come out of a war zone! I don't know what it is with babies always using their noggin to catch their fall! But I feel so bad that he keeps running into things. Like... the floor. :) Heh heh. Such is life, I guess. These next pics are just fun, crazy ones. Gotta love playing with the camera...

Then here's Mac checking out Mr. Snowman. Fun times ahead!