Our Christmas

Sorry for the late post. It has been such a nice break, that we've been doing a lot of other things and I've forgotten about the blog. I'll post here about our Christmas, and I'll leave other news for another post.

We spent Christmas Eve day with the Niebuhrs, because Lisa had to work Christmas Day. So, we went over there in the morning and opened presents first thing. The kids were very spoiled and got some great things, including but not limited to: a CD player with microphones to sing along, a marble run, puzzles, Bilibos, a Tag reading system, dragons, a little Fur Real toy dog, clothes, and much more! We had a nice lunch and played some more. We put them down for a nap at Niebuhrs, so Brian could do a jigsaw puzzle with his parents and we didn't have to drive all over town in the snow. We got them up and got all dressed up and went to church at 4:30. By this time, it was snowing pretty heavily. We were a little worried, because we were supposed to drive out to Kara and Wes' after church. So, church was fine and we decided to go ahead and drive out there. The roads weren't too bad, it was just that there was so much blowing snow. But, we braved it and got out there with no problems. We ate our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of chili and pressed chicken sandwiches, then we decided to get home so Santa could visit. The ride back was a little scarier, because of the snow, but we did make it with no problems.

Santa did indeed visit that night (even in the snow!). The kids were so excited to wake up to those presents. This Christmas was really fun in that respect. It was really fun to see them so excited about Santa visiting. We took turns opening presents and they had a lot of fun. After every present he opened, Will exclaimed "That is just what I needed!" We were a little worried about Will. He had been telling people for 3 weeks that he wanted Santa to bring him a dragon cave. Well, my mom had bought it for him, not Santa. We were really afraid that he was going to be disappointed that Santa didn't bring it, because he wasn't going to open it from my parents until Christmas night. So when he said something about it on Christmas morning, we just told him that sometimes Santa tells grandparents what presents to buy and maybe Santa told Grandma Pam about the dragon cave. He was OK with that, luckily. From Santa and us they got some superhero jammies (tinkerbell for Grace), superhero t-shirts, new toothbrushes, books, a Beauty and the Beast DVD and Batman Batcave and accessories.

Well, it had snowed a bunch that night. Both of our families were supposed to come over for brunch around 10:30 Christmas morning. They all started calling around 8:30 to see if we were still doing it. I said we could do it as long as people could make it over. Well, Chad and Lisa got stuck coming over, so they had to turn around and go home. Mom and Dad, Wes and Kara all made it in their large 4 wheel drive trucks. Dale and Ellen got stuck trying to turn onto our street, so ended up parking at Cavett school and walking the block and a half here. So, we were able to still have breakfast. However, we knew that the minivan would never make it through the snow, we weren't sure how we'd make it to mom's for Christmas night. Dad ended up coming back after the kids' nap and picking us up in the Suburban then bringing us home. It was so great that we were able to all fit in the car, otherwise Christmas would have been pretty dull here. We had a good dinner at the Hoefs, then more presents. The kids got Toy Story pajamas, DVDs, bed tents and toys (Tinkerbell for Grace), clothes, the dragon cave and more dragons, Grace got a makeup vanity and much more.

Unfortunately, we were snowed in until Monday. We were able to get out on Sunday evening, because Mom and Dad came over in the suburban and we drove that out. Otherwise we didn't get plowed out until Monday morning. So, we have had a lot of family time at home. We've watched several movies and luckily the kids have been very occupied with all their new toys!

We hope you all had a blessed Christmas. We have had a nice break from our regular schedule, but it will be nice to get back into a routine next week. We've had a lot of days going to bed late, sleeping in and eating TONS of food. More later! Happy new year!