White Chrismas... in Texas?!?!?

The night before, I jokingly told the girls not to wake me up before 9AM. They woke up at 3AM, quietly walked downstairs to take a peek and then went back up to bed. They woke up a 6:30 and waited patiently upstairs, watching TV, not waking us up at 9:06! I couldn't believe it! They are the sweetest things ever... "sleep" is the best Christmas gift they could have given me!

Santa was lucky enough to find Zhu Zhu Pets the week before Christmas! They are actually pretty fun little guys!

Even though it snowed all day the day before we didn't have much accumulation due to the 75 degree day we had the day before that. Still, being lucky enough to have a "white" Christmas made the day just a little more special!

Emily knew how to dress for the snow...

Megan?? Not so much!

Wanting it to snow again... so making it snow again! ;)

I I was trying to make a snowman but the snow wouldn't stick together... although it did stick to my gloves rather nicely.

Twas The Night Before Christmas...

...and we were snowed in! Normally, we spend our Christmas Eve in Carbon at Wayne's Granny's house. Sadly, we had to miss out this year due to the snow that fell all day and the temps dipping below freezing making the roads too unsafe for such a long drive. Believe it or not, it was 75 degrees and sunny the day before!! Only in Texas!! Although, we missed spending the day with family it was a little nice to have a 'free' day to spend at home playing games by the fire and just being lazy!

Hope Santa can find our house in all this snow!
Getting ready for bed...
this is always easier when Santa's involved!

Had Emily not asked for the pink BMX bike it might be difficult to tell 2 little girls live here! ;)

We don't have a good Christmas tree spot in our family room and normally spend our Christmas morning on the cold floor in the entry way. This time Santa was kind enough to leave the gifts in a place where we would be able to enjoy our morning by the warm fire for once!

As I was playing with my camera next to the fireplace, Wayne asked "Are you going to wait there all night and try to get a picture of Santa?" I said "Oh, that's easy!" hehe

Okay... so Santa had a couple glasses of wine and was feeling a bit silly! ;) And to all a goodnight!

Christmas with The Reynolds and a Sublette ;)

Megan was super excited to open an entire Rubbermaid storage container full of Hot Wheels cars and tracks!
Emily got the game Trouble from Aunt Kerrie and we have all enjoyed playing it!

Spiderman popped in for a visit! Too bad Megan wasn't around to meet him! ;)

Wow... this is rare! A picture of me and Wayne??? Thanks for this one Myra! :)

Me, Kerri and Sierra... the 14 year-old puppy! ;)

I guess Megan wasn't the only one excited about the Hot Wheels...

A Visit With Santa!

We got lucky and saw Santa at Santa Land and didn't have to wait in the 2 hour lines at the mall! Megan couldn't wait to talk to Santa, but Emily was way too cool for this. She stood outside with her hand on her hip saying "I'm 8 years old... I'm not gonna sit on a fake Santa's lap... only the real Santa"! lol A couple weeks prior to this the girls stayed the night at a hotel in Frisco with Grandmama. When they had breakfast in the restaurant the next morning Santa was there! The awesome Stonebriar Center Santa (for those of you who are familiar with him). So he is the REAL Santa... and they both thought it was pretty cool to talk with him that morning and I completely understand why Emily wasn't too thrilled with this Santa... who Megan thought was just one of Santa's helpers. :)

Santa Land

I don't know about you, but my very favorite part of the holidays is definitely seeing everything lit up with lights! With my mom, dad and sister the girls and I took a long drive out to Lindale to see Santa Land! This place was pretty cool... a ton of lights and displays to view as we drove thru the east Texas woods and neat light show set to music on a long road of lit up Chrismas trees. We all had a great time out there!

The girls got the "best seat in the house" thru the sunroof!
I can never get a good picture of the lights. :( And of course when in a small town you have to stop at Dairy Queen for a treat!

Christmas with Grandmama & Daddy D

Nancy and Dennis were heading to their new home in Todos Santos, Mexico for a month on December 13th... so we got to start our Christmas celebrations early! Daddy D is pouring up some yummy cocktails and Shirley Temples for the girls!

This is Amante their new puppy... they got her in Mexico! Such a sweet doggie!

Megan fell in love with this hamper at a charity auction and Daddy D bid on it and won! Now lest see how many dirty clothes actually get put in there!

He also won this American Girl Doll for Emily!

Crazy bow heads!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

A few years ago I purchased a pre-lit 9' artificial tree thinking that pre-lit would make life easier! Right?? It ended up being a nightmare! I wish I had taken a picture of what our tree looked like for the first week. I pulled the artificial tree down, got the bottom layer set up and realized only 1/3 of the lights were working... and I still couldn't get them to work an hour later so I gave up for the day with the intention of getting to it later. Well, with work kicking in that never happened! Finally, we just threw the thing out and ran up to Home Depot and got this lovely little $32 tree... which I absolutely adore! Who says bigger is better?? I think this is the way our tree will be for here on out... much less stressful!

We didn't get the tree decorated that night... had to watch the last bit of the Texas/Nebraska game... and boy am I glad we didn't miss that drama! Hmmm... maybe we can throw out that ratty old angel too??? We got up the next morning to decorate the tree! Every year when I ask the girls what the best part of their Christmas was, it's never the presents or the holiday baking, they always say "Decorating the Christmas Tree!" As you can see, my idea of throwing out the angel tree topper was not a popular one. Maybe next year...