Merry Christmas Eve's Eve

Merry Christmas Eve's Eve!

In our house we've been counting down the days until Christmas with the Countdown Santa Grandma Jan painted for us a few years ago. He sits on the shelf next to the book my Mom (or GG??) bought for us when we moved to the South. Both deliver great information.As you can see above we only have 2 more days until Christmas!

As we've counted down the days we've been quite busy:
Lauren had her Christmas Party at school.

The only picture I took (out of 20 or so good photo-ops) was of Mr. Zack reading a story to the kids.
(Mr. Zack is a high-school student who plans on getting his teaching degree so he spends part of his school day helping in Lauren's class.)

I snuck Tyler in there too and nobody seemed to notice.

I had my Mom's Night Out gift exchange.
It was a very fun evening in with the ladies even though the gift I stole was then stolen from me. I ended up going home with a gift of 2 bottles of red wine. Not too shabby at all.

Today
I was in the kitchen doing something very productive (as always) when I heard Lauren and Tyler both burst out laughing in the office. They were on the computers playing Curious George's Banana 411 game.
Can I just freeze these kiddos so they don't get any older?!

Before I get to today's food let me share a couple of cool things with you.
Thing #1
Oregon vs. Auburn Diaries
At her school Christmas party, Lauren's teacher told me she is rooting for my Oregon Ducks in the BCS National Championship Game (aka the Nattys.) I looked at her and said, "But I thought you were an Alabama fan?!" She said, "I am." And then I remembered that Alabama is NOT the same as Auburn, AL. I was afraid that Alabama fans would automatically choose the SEC over the Pac-10 or anyone else for that matter but it appears it is not the case. Whoo Hoo. I'm happy to have any and all Alabama fans. So c'mon Alabama let's Roll the Tide in Oregon's direction!!

Thing #2
Our Church's iBand
They performed this last Sunday.
A-W-E-S-O-M-E
(especially the second song so make sure you listen to the entire clip)

and a bonus Thing #3
My brother and sister (in-law) are going to have a BOY!!
Congratulations Kevin and Mili!

And now for today's food.

I follow about 40 blogs in my Google Reader (too many?) but occasionally there will be a blog about exactly what I need. I had a container of left-over canned pumpkin in the fridge that was on its absolute last day. 'Lo and behold Carrots' N Cake blogged about some Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Dough Balls which (when doubled) used the exact amount of canned pumpkin I had left over. I love when that happens!
They are delish and as I type this post Matt and Mr. Mike are in the basement making a pretty good dent in them.

Dinner tonight was from my Rachael Ray magazine.
Smoky Tomato and Couscous (but I used Orzo) Soup
This smoky and very SPICY tomato soup is going into my All-Time Favorites folder.

Matt made his famous grilled cheese sandwiches to go with it.
Look at those beauts! I refuse to learn how to make grilled cheese because mine couldn't possibly come close to his.

To close, here are a couple pics of the children patiently? waiting for Christmas morning.

Tyler in front of the ridiculously full Christmas tree and...

Lauren finishing up her latest masterpiece.

Merry Christmas Eve's Eve Y'all