Prayer

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas! We woke up to 36 hours of straight snowfall.

Santa was hungry!

Did you say Santa came?!

Merry Christmas 2011

Christmas Afternoon

After church we headed to Mimi and Pop's for a Christmas feast! How blessed are we to have a so much.

After lunch we opened presents.

The kids watched as the snow began to melt.

We came home and took down all our Christmas decorations! Yep, when its over, its over.

The kids enjoyed their gifts.

Sweet almost 4 year old

Headed to bed! What an incredible Christmas! We are so blessed!

Christmas Eve

We woke up Christmas Eve to lots and lots of snow! It was definitely a white Christmas. Very cliche but beautiful and festive!

The kids woke up excited and we made homemade pancakes for breakfast!

I baked all day while watching the snow fall and listening to Christmas Carols! I baked homemade rolls, a chili rellano casserole, loaded mashed potato casserole, squash casserole, and pumpkin pie. This was only part of our Christmas Day feast (Mimi did the rest!)

We headed out to church around 4:00pm. The Family Candlelight Service didn't start until 5:30pm but we got there early to get seats. Despite the weather, church was packed and it was beautiful. I loved being surrounded by my friends and family celebrating Christmas.

We left church and it was really snowing! It was just incredible!

We headed down the street to Wall Street for dinner (I made reservations a month ago!)

It was really snowing but we drove around and looked at Christmas lights before heading home.

We put out our cookies and milk for Santa.

Sprinkled on some reindeer food

And it was off to bed with hopes that Santa would come!

What is different in 2011?

2011

2008, 2009, 2010

For the first time in 4 years, we do not have a gate around our Christmas Tree!

I have not put any gifts under there because I am sure they would be all unwrapped by now, but the kids haven't messed with the tree and it is so nice to grow out of these things!

Arnie

Arnie our elf (named in 2009 by Hannah) has been watching over our household for the past month, flying to the North Pole (almost every night) and reporting (good and bad) behavior to Santa! Arnie returns to a new place each morning and has been a little mischievous elf this year! Arnie will pack his bags and head back to the North Pole tonight for his final wrap up with Santa, and we will see again next December!

Dear Arnie, Please tell Santa that Hannah and Hudson have been good. Please forget about them fighting, tattling, whining, and not minding... They really have been pretty good this year.

Thanks, Mom and Dad

Cookies for Santa

I worked the majority of the week. Dr. N was on vacation and I enjoyed helping out. I truly love my job and it was nice to get to spend a little more time up there. I enjoy co-workers and we were pretty busy. Hannah attended Gymnastic Camp Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoon. When I dropped her off Monday there were about 40 kids (most she knew and ages 4 and 5) and one instructor. Against my better judgement, I left her. She wanted to go back Tuesday and didn't end up staying the whole 5 hours. Wednesday I picked her up with a huge swollen ankle and bloody lip. We didn't go back on Thursday. We ended up skipping out of Emma's Cookie party but made up for it today by making some cookies for Santa.

This is the first year Hannah has really been old enough and helpful enough to do it herself! We had fun and she really enjoyed it. I made the dough and icing last night while and today we rolled them out, cut them, cooked them, and iced them! This is my Mom's favorite recipe that we made all time growing up. It was my mom's dream to bake with Hannah. I wish she were here to help us. The snow is falling, the cookies are drying, presents are wrapped, and Christmas is here!!!