Ranty Pants Christmas 2010

This year was a quiet but fun one for the Ranty Pants clan. None of that jetting off to other countries planned this year. No Christmas brunches or parties to attend. Just me, Daisy, Hubster, and close family.

On Christmas Eve, my mother, sister-in-law and I pot-lucked dinner up at my mother-in-law's house in Foresthill. My contribution was Maple-Roasted Vegetables and Cheese Muffins. Ironically, the Cheese Muffin recipe that I had been dying  to try for the past year turned out to be a disappointment. Although I am not the world's most sophisticated cook, it definitely needed some tweaking for my tastebuds - a bit bland.

However, the roasted vegetables, which were ridiculously easy to make, turned out to be a runaway success. My husband's family are typically not big vegetable eaters, to the point where veggies are often an afterthought, if included at all with meals. So it was cool to see a scraped-clean pyrex dish at the end of the night. Woot "Chef Ranty Pants"

This year my mother-in-law bought and personalized Daisy her own little rocking chair. It is soooo adorable. She'll love it forever, I'm sure.





Cousin Ezra got a similar chair, while Cousin Adah got this:





Which elicited this



I know... awwww.

As if to validate my sister-in-law and my choice to buy our little girls each a doll house this year, there was also this



So cute to watch them beginning to play with one another!

Then it was home to finish wrapping and to wait for Santa, who was very busy and awfully quiet because, when we turned our backs we found this





All of which took more than four hours to unwrap the next morning, as Missy paced herself by playing with each and every gift for a while before moving on to the next. She would not could not be rushed.





But the best love was reserved for the doll house. When she realized there was a bounty of gifts under the tree first thing in the morning, she ran toward it with her pointy-finger, at first whispering "Doll house!" and then screaching "DOLL HOUSE!" as she got closer. She promptly sat down and went to work exploring her new toy. It took a further 30 minutes for us to tear her away to open her first gift.



Then it was naptime and an opportunity for Hubby and I to finally get out of our PJs. As cute as they were, it was almost 1pm!



Finally we went for some traditional English Christmas dinner at Nan's house, where we wrapped up the evening playing on my Dad's keyboard.



I got some wonderful, wonderful gifts this year. My wishes were definitely granted by Santa. But the most amazing gifts of all were three tickets to England in April, from my parents. It has been more than two years since I made it back to the UK (my longest stint away from home ever) and Daisy has never been and so I literally cried when I opened the envelope. Can't wait for some real fish and chips, a good pub lunch, and to introduce Missy to the rest of the family.

Oh, and there is the small matter of a Royal Wedding...