My family celebrated Christmas on December 19 so we could all be together.  Lee and I left California a little earlier than anticipated to avoid the big storm that was heading in and were home by 10pm on Friday night 12/17.  Abbie, Lani and Kyle arrived a few hours later and so did the snow.  We awoke to 6 inches of fresh, gorgeous snow that was a little difficult to run in, but couldn't have been more beautiful.

The theme of this year's Shiny the Elf was Chinese cooking.  My mom makes some of the best Chinese food I've ever had, and definitely the best egg rolls I've ever had.  So, for Shiny we got some pretty cool Chinese cooking tools, her favorite Chinese cookbook, a tempera pan AND a lesson on egg roll making.  Over the last few years, egg rolls have become part of our Christmas traditions.  So, on Christmas Eve day - my mom taught all 5 of us the tricks and tips to making good egg rolls.  It's a time consuming process, so we only prepped on Christmas Eve day and then had the egg rolls on Christmas night.  But it was SUCH a treat.   I'm so excited I now know how!

Christmas Eve dinner was all about our Polish heritage.  We had perogies and kielbasa with enough butter to stop your heart.  Followed by time at the puzzle, Christmas story reading and Christmas pajamas.

Christmas morning brought more snow and lots of leisure.  It also brought us a new G12 camera!!! We're so excited for the upgrade!  (Lee still has his SLR of course, but this is the "little guy" I shoot with).  We had a delicious breakfast at 2pm, egg roll dinner at 8pm and a walk in the empty, snow covered streets at 11pm.  It couldn't have been a better day or night.

The next couple of days were lazy ones, enjoying being at home and kicking it with family.   And on Wednesday afternoon we left little old La Grande and headed to Idaho for Christmas #2!