Christmas 2011

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Grant only gets 10 vacation days a year, and usually by this point in the year he has used them all up. (I am a firm believer in using them since his do not accumulate year to year!) He took last Thursday and Friday off, which was nice because we were able to finish up some shopping, do some cleaning and of course pack for Christmas in Akron.

I spent Thursday and Friday planning some baking projects... I made homemade hot chocolate mix to give to some friends and family members and also homemade peppermint bark. Both were awesome :-) The hot chocolate mix said to use 1/3 cup but that was waaay too rich, so I changed the serving amount to 3 Tbsp, assuming that people know they should just add more if they want it to be richer. 

peppermint bark

hot cocoa mix

Friday, we had Grant's coworkers Tom and Sarah over for dinner. I am so thankful he has great people like them to keep him sane at his job. We had Baked Cream Cheese (a Clark family favorite) as an appetizer, followed by Pasta Carbonara, bread & salad for dinner. I also made mint brownies for dessert. I used 1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract instead of the creme de methe... and instead of making the homemade brownies, I used a box... it was a good decision. They were délicieux! 

Saturday, we woke up bright and early and headed to Akron. I had brunch at First Watch with 9 others girls with whom I was in youth group when I was in high school. It was so good to see them and catch up. We hung out at my parents' house for awhile that afternoon and then got dressed for dinner at Ken Stewart's Lodge. It was fun to be back there because that is where we held our rehearsal dinner before our wedding in 2007. It was beautifully decorated for Christmas. We went to the Christmas Eve service at church and then hung out with some family friends until MIDNIGHT. Oh my goodness... I cannot stay up that late any more, especially if I continue not to sleep well each night. 

The Clark Family :-) We take a pic at church each year.  It's pretty much our only family picture of the year most years.

 We slept in til NINE on Christmas morning (well, laid in bed at least... I figured this might be the last time I get to do that with our little guy on the way) and then had brunch and opened presents. We are so blessed to have wonderful families, now with each sibling in our families having their own iPAD we can facetime all the time to stay in touch. Hopefully that will make our little man's grandparents feel more connected to him since they do not live here in Columbus. Christmas continued later that day with dinner at my Aunt & Uncle's, followed by a rousing game of the Harry Potter edition of Clue. Linds... we need to play next time we are together, seriously. 

Christmas morning brunch & presents in our pjs

Emmers in front of the tree

 Monday we celebrated with lunch with Grant's parents and then they headed to Florida for the winter. It was so sweet to have Christmas with them before they left... but we really missed having our family in Denver here in Ohio. After they left we spent a few hours hanging out with the Becks, who were in town for Christmas. Christina is one of my sweet sorority sisters and is 10 weeks behind me in her pregnancy... so fun :-)

Baby Girl Beck coming in May and Baby Boy Miller in February!

 Joyeux Noel!!