Santa brought the kids hammock chairs for Christmas this year. Luckily Grandpa could hang them for us when he came over Christmas day.
They take up a good bit of space in their rooms but they really love them. It looks so relaxing that it makes me want to hang some in the living room. Who knows, in our next house I just may do that.
For Christmas, I bought myself replacement kitchen gear that had seen better days. I'm not sure why I let my kitchen equipment get this bad. I use it almost daily but I can't usually bring myself to spend money on better stuff. So, for Christmas, I treated myself to some upgrades. We were given the cookie sheet on the left as a wedding gift.... 7 1/2 years ago. It has quite a "patina" on it. I bought 2 half sheet pans to add to the line up. The funny thing is that I still use the old pans along with the new. They're still perfectly good pans... just not as pretty as the new ones.
I've owned the cutting board on the left for about 5 years. It should have been in the trash LONG ago. It went in the garbage as soon as I took this picture. The new cutting board is so nice and is non-slip, which I love.
I've been using the same 2 paring knives for 8 years. They're dull and sharpening them seems to do no good anymore. I've replaced them with Farberware knives.....
and this pretty green paring knife that Jon bought me from Williams-Sonoma. 
Jon also bought me this egg rings. They're fun to use to make eggs the perfect shape for sandwiches. This griddle was a present from my daycare family. I LOVE it! I didn't realize how much of a difference it would make. I can now make 6-7 pancakes at a time instead of 2-3 in a pan. It's definitely one of my favorite presents from this year.
My sister and her husband came to visit over New Year's. David is sleeping in the background of this picture. Katie made Evan and Charlotte's presents. Evan got these adorable rocket ships.
Charlotte got this beautiful crown. (the piggy bank is from Papa and Lisa)Katie also made them rice warmer bags that I forgot to take a picture of. Katie blogged about them here. They're soft, cloth bags with rice inside. When you microwave the bags for 1 minute, they get wonderfully warm. The kids have taken them to bed with them each night. I snuck Evan's today to warm myself after running errands. I think I'll have to make one for myself.
Katie and David brought the doggies. Scooter's not in this picture but he came along too. They were very good boys. 
When we were over at Mom and Mark's house, Katie went to put Mom's bird back in his cage. He didn't want to climb onto her finger so he flew onto the top of the Christmas tree. He makes a lovely tree topper, doesn't he?
The last day that Katie and David were here, I took them to Mega Thrift since they were having a 50% clothing sale. While Katie looked through tops, I found these awesome Rubbermaid storage containers for $1.99 each.. except the bowl that was $.99. I'm so excited to find large containers since I used to have to use multiple containers to store large batches of goodies. The bowl is an exact match of one I already have and love. It's the best bowl to mix large batches of bread dough in. I was so excited to find it's twin. Cooking and baking is a lot of fun for me and these new "toys" make it even better!
