Christmas

I LOVE this picture. He looks like a big boy!

Checking out Granny Frances' Christmas Tree
Hadleigh loves Christmas presents...

smiling at her auntie. :)

I am half way done with Christmas celebrations. Bryan and I have done Christmas with his family. We have done Christmas with my mom. More to come. But here's some favorite pictures so far.....pretty much all my pictures are of Riley and Hadleigh...they seem to steal the show! :)

Christmas Party 08

The tree and the gift exchange items

Kati and Lindsey with Bryan jumping in.

I love Hadleigh's face in this picture. :)

Bryan and I borrowing Hadleigh for our picture! :) Hey, she's not crying in ours. Being aunt and uncle is fun! :)
Jeane's gift to me. Hairspray. She knows me TOO well. I just realized I'm holding this hairspray bottle the same way I was holding Hadleigh. I'm crazy.

Bryan and I had our 3rd annual Christmas Party this Saturday. It was SO much fun. We really enjoyed ourselves, and it was great to have all of our friends there. We always do a gift exchange, and this year's was really fun/funny. It's always a good assortment of movies, games, and unexpected mess. The first year we had our party, Patrick's gift he brought to exchange was a copy of the movie Brokeback Mountain. :) Nobody wanted it. Well, this was our 3rd year Brokeback has made a comeback to the party. My brother Joe brought it back because he ended up with is last year. I had completely forgotten about it. Now the torch has been passed to Matt, he's now obligated to come to our party next year to keep the Brokeback Mountain tradition going. :)

We made this recipe for a Pomegranate Sipper as our drink for the evening and I thought it turned out well. It smells great, and made the whole house smell good while Bryan and I were making it Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
1 (2 1/2-inch-long) cinnamon stick
5 whole cloves
5 thin fresh ginger slices
2 (16-oz.) bottles refrigerated 100% pomegranate juice
4 cups white grape juice
1/2 cup pineapple juice
Garnishes: pineapple chunks, orange rind curls
Preparation
1. Cook cinnamon stick, cloves, and ginger in a Dutch oven over medium heat, stirring constantly, 2 to 3 minutes or until cinnamon is fragrant.
2. Gradually stir in juices. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 15 minutes. Pour mixture through a wire-mesh strainer into a heat-proof pitcher; discard solids. Serve warm. Garnish, if desired.
Note: For testing purposes only, we used POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice and Welch's 100% White Grape Juice.
Tipsy Hot Spiced Pomegranate Sipper: Prepare recipe as directed. Stir in 1 1/4 cups almond liqueur just before serving. Makes 9 1/4 cups.
Cold Spiced Pomegranate Sipper: Prepare recipe as directed. Let stand 30 minutes. Cover and chill 2 hours. Store in refrigerator up to 2 days. Stir and serve over ice. Prep: 10 min., Cook: 25 min., Stand: 30 min., Chill: 2 hr.
Fizzy Spiced Pomegranate Sipper: Prepare Cold Spiced Pomegranate Sipper as directed. Stir in 1 (33.8-oz.) bottle ginger ale just before serving. Makes 16 cups.

****We chilled, fizzied, and tipsied ours. The almond liqueur was just a little something without making it crazy punch.