Christmas Eve was spent at Jeff's parents house. The big gift for the boys (Will, Ryan, and EJ):

Evidence that Santa came to our house!! And daddy reading Santa's letter to Will while Will finished Santa's leftovers:






Tom, Mary Esther and Elizabeth:
Then, on the Winter Solstice, Mary Esther celebrated her 40th. She invited us, Jeff and Annie's family, and some close neighbor friends over for dinner and cake to celebrate both the solstice and her 40th. It was a very nice time, despite the smell of burning cat hair when Kenosha Girl accidentally dipped her tail TWICE into the candles from the Solstice Tree!
Noreen and John were missed terribly as they had to cancel their trip a few hours before their flight left. However, we still continued with Noreen's idea of the girls exchanging gifts of their "favorite things." Mom made everyone some of the prized Grandma Donahue "Best Chocolate Sauce Ever" and shared the recipe. Noreen sent everyone her and John's favorite spice rub for pork and steak. Annie gave everyone some pricey chocolate and some chocolate chap stick from a friend's shop in Barrington. Annie also brought her birthday present to share with everyone in the house, a heated seat massager...hopefully we didn't all wear it out! It was quite the hit! Mary Esther made ornaments out of her favorite beach glass from the beach near her house and also chose a poem from a book that reminded her of each of us. Renee gave everyone a box of her favorite treats from a local store near Green Bay. Jennifer made everyone a CD of her favorite tunes and samples of some seasonal scented bath wash. I gave everyone seeds for my favorite garden flower, the Purple Coneflower. Here's a picture of us sampling some of Annie's chocolates she brought to share: