Christmas Eve at our house

On Christmas Eve, we spent the day preparing for our big Christmas Day party.

We removed the coffee table from the living room so there would be more room for babies and kids and people (and Tim shampooed our living room rug!):

My son Allen came over and made his hard cracked candy:

He added sugar and corn syrup to the pot, and boiled it until it reached the hard crack stage:

Then he added red food coloring and cinnamon flavoring. He poured it into the pans, scored it, and let it harden:

Later, he cracked the candy out of the pans and dusted it with powdered sugar:

It came out really good!
this batch has not been dusted with powdered sugar yet:

I also made my baklava:

And two apple pies:

And I made two pumpkin pies:

When my son Chris got home from work, he pitched in and made these pudding cups:

 He used chocolate and vanilla puddings and he layered them in the cups:

Some other things we made on Christmas Eve that we didn't take pictures of; chocolate creme pie,  brownies, fudge, cookies, and cupcakes. It was a full day  (and night) of baking!

We also set up a table in the kitchen for our Christmas Day buffet:
The Christmas platters are ready for appetizers!

And we set up a table for gingerbread house making:

I think I finally went to bed around 12:30 or 1, and I was exhausted!

I couldn't wait to wake up the next morning -- Christmas Day!!

Tomorrow's post = Christmas 2011 at the Bruns house!