Christmas Eve 2008

Mom, dad, and I headed to my brother Kevin's on Christmas Eve to celebrate with his family. As soon as my parents got there, there was quite a pile 'o presents under the tree, so we let Andrew open up a couple of things.

He opened the ornaments I knit for their family

And the hats the boys got from my parents!

The boys loved them - they will definitely keep them warm when they speed countless hours outdoors! Andrew and Matty are so used to all the posing they have to do for pictures - we didn't even ask them to hold hands in this picture, they decided to do that on their own. Andrew is quite the sweet big brother!

Mom read to the boys

while Kevin prepared the delicious appetizers we feasted upon.

The aps weren't exactly Matthew-friendly food, so he had his first course of yogurt (which he thoroughly enjoyed)

followed by a 2nd course of squash... which he didn't seem to like nearly as much as the yummy, sweet yogurt!

After a few hours, we had worked up an appetite for dinner so the preparation began. Mom showed Andrew (aka the next Bobby Flay) how to make our traditional Christmas dish of Oyster Stew.

After eating a fabulous dinner (you'll have to take my word for it, I got so excited about eating, I forgot to take pictures), we started opening gifts. Andrew helped Matthew open some gifts - I am sure this is the one & only year that Matthew will be willing to give up that task!!

Matthew's favorite gift was a little cookie jar that sings a song when you put a shape in the right slot.

Andrew's favorite toy seemed to be the set of dishes - he loves to cook, like his daddy, so it should be no surprise that he was most interested in culinary-inspired gifts. And he apparently has some McDougall genes - as soon as he opened up the dish set, he organized them quite well. Grandma was so proud!

We finished up the night with home-made ice cream, topped with an assortment of fresh berries. Again, my apologies for a lack of pictures. I was too distracted by the food to think of grabbing my camera!! I did manage to get one photo with me & both the boys, though!

Christmas Day will have to be separate post - my wireless network connectivity keeps failing every time I try to upload a picture... My patience has been exhausted so that post will have to come tomorrow!