The Bakers! Both of the B's like to cook. If I were a better mother, I would make more time to teach them. Or maybe if I were a better cook. Truth be told, I loathe cooking, even though I'm not half bad at it, when I want to make something. I'm especially good at baking, believe it or not. And so I promised my darlings we would bake lots of stuff, this year. I did this just so they could have the experience. And so we had a plan - work on Saturday, bake on Sunday and Monday, clean the house on Tuesday morning.
As life would have it, our plans didn't exactly pan out (pun intended!). On our way to our job on Saturday, our beloved Silver Bullet blew up. Or at least that is how it sounded. In reality, our water pump went out. Thankfully, we had just pulled off the freeway, and as luck would have it, the pump went out right as we were next to a wide spot in the road for trucks to rest. So there went the plans! Fortunately, our wonderful friend Terra came and got the little B's and I and drove us home while Brady waited for the tow truck and made the trip back to Eugene to the shop for our pickup to get worked on. Luckily, they had our pickup fixed that very day! We were very thankful it was only a water pump, ironically caused from the folks who changed our oil for us and accidentally mixing the antifreeze (don't ever mix antifreeze!). In any case, we had to revamp our plans. So we baked what we could on Saturday afternoon, rescheduled part of our work for Sunday, and finished our baking on Monday and Tuesday morning.
And wah-lah! We made 8 varieties of goodies, before it was all said and done, and shared the loot with our neighbors and friends. And we still have leftovers, which we've happily been munching on all week long. 
And that takes us to Christmas Eve. After mass, we always let the kids open their pajamas and the ornaments from me. They were a hit! 
These two get so excited for Christmas Day, they can hardly stand it. They got up at FOUR IN THE MORNING, this year! We had asked them to wait until seven... I heard them talking in Brailey's room, first, and then they made their way to Britt's. Brady and I finally gave up on making them wait and got up at 5:50 and let them see if Santa had come, and of course, he had. And they were thrilled!
They opened their gifts from each other, first. I love how much they care about each other and the way Brailey's arm is around Britt's waist. They put a lot of time and effort into getting their presents for each other. Speaking as their mother, it was truly heartwarming! I pray they never lose this connection they have with each other.
Above, one of my presents from Britt... "Open me first!" Is that cute or what?!
An inside, family joke... They got each other the same gift, but different. Sillies!
One of Brailey's special wrap jobs... "Open me last!"
They both got hats - Brailey's from Santa, and Britt's from Big Daddy.
Poor Brady... He isn't a morning person, and he also doesn't really care for our traditional Christmas Rolls we have for breakfast every Christmas morning, a recipe and tradition handed down from my mother. Hence, the slightly haggard look about him... We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus before eating these rolls, another tradition of ours, borrowed from good Catholic friends. 
These are the coolest flip flops - they have a rhinestone volleyball on them! I can't wait until she grows out of them and I can have them (not really, just kidding!). 
All said and done, it was a wonderful, grateful, quiet Christmas spent at home, which is a great luxury for us B's.
