Ho Ho Ho

I'm dreaming of a whiiiiiiiiiteeeee Chrisssstmas! Well KEEP DREAMING! We just got rain. Quite a bit of rain, actually! And we managed to be out during the only part of the day where it did rain... hard. But that's all a part of the fun of it, right? Okay, no... but it didn't spoil any of the fun, so that's good!

What a magical Christmas we had this year!! Mom and Dad rolled into town on the 21st with a gingerbread house, mini-Christmas tree for the girls' and presents in tow. We drove through a huge Christmas lights display that was coordinated with music and it was an amazing site! The whole show lasts about 20 minutes and the lights were coordinated to 4 songs (if I remember correctly) that played through your car radio. The girls really enjoyed sitting with their heads out the sun roof, watching the lights... Shawna didn't have as much fun as the rest of us did, but we just turned up the music and ignored her. Okay, okay, I'm kidding of course... sort of. haha! My parents took a night to babysit and let Neal and me go to dinner and ice skating with the Harolds. We had a BLAST! It was a ton of fun even with the huge fall on the ice and giant lump on my elbow and knee.

*note to self - ice skate first THEN drink wine*

Neal managed to pop a photo on his iPhone.

The rest of the trip we did Christmas shopping, ate lots of yummy goodies, baked cookies for Santa and went to the family service at church complete with dress-up nativity.
Mallory dressed as an angel

Gwyneth was a lamb

She let Shawna try on her ears

Then Gramma and Pop Pop took Shawna home while Neal, Gwyn, Mal and I delivered cookies to some people who were working on Christmas Eve. What a pleasure that was! Then we opened one present, read T'was the Night Before Christmas and then went to sleep. When the girls woke up the next morning they found presents under their tree and even more under ours!
Santa brought 3 presents for each girl - just like the wise men did for baby Jesus. I know this because Gwyneth told me so when she came into my room at 5am. I told her to open the presents that were left under her tree (Santa leaves them so mom and dad can sleep in - isn't he wonderful!?) and they actually made it until 7am. We had almost every present open before the sun seeped over the horizon. Mimosas help in this situation!
The girls made out like bandits! Everyone was so sweet to think of us this Christmas! The girls really enjoyed everything... it wasn't like the year I put tights in Gwyneth's stocking only to hear, "What? I didn't order THIS." I'd never make it through if I listed everything under the tree, but we did get a couple of pictures amidst all the chaos.

The next to graduate from Henderson University will be this sweet little 7 year old. The rest of us are getting our advanced degrees
Shawna did a great job opening her presents!

Mallory got everything she asked Santa for - Safety Scissors, a Big Frisbee and Pajamas (cute flannel ones with pink cats on them.)
Mal and Gwyn got Snuggies from Gramma and PopPop. They were a BIG hit!
I think Neal was a little jealous...Clearly I was the big winner of the day with the awesome Broncos vintage sweater and UT Vols ice cube tray!!!!

Gwyn got a DS lite... it was nice knowing her. I'm sure we'll see her again when she's 17.
Of course it's always worth putting down your DS to put on your fancy new clothes and beat your sister in Madagascar Kart on the Wii!

I hope that all of you had as joyous a Christmas as we did! May you all ring in the New Year happy and healthy. I can only imagine what 2010 has in store for us and I can't wait to find out! Happy New Year everyone!