Wrapping up Christmas (part 1)...

Well... it seems once again that Christmas has come & gone in a flash.  I wonder if the kids would agree?  Is it like when we were kids & the countdown to Christmas seemed to move at a snail's pace or has it really sped up for all, young & old alike?  I'm hoping for their sake that the excitement & anticipation of it all still makes the time go slow... & it is only those of us who are busy with other things & trying to "create" the magic of it all that find it whizzing by. I can barely make Christmas happen with a month (or more) of preparation so I have a new found awe of being able to create a whole world in just 6 days!

Our kids are truly at a fun age for it all... Brandon (6) as a full grasp on all aspects of Christmas & is very eager to share this wealth of information with Melanie (3.5), who takes it all in & shares her own theories & facts on it all.  After a fun month of taking in all sorts of holiday fun & finally we were in the home stretch.  We got our pre-Christmas snow storm, to guarantee a white Christmas & some outdoor fun!

Snowshoes on... ready to go...

After the drive is done... Mike moved to the backyard to start on our snow hill

... & I had the cutest helper in the kitchen getting the lamb marinating, the Christmas Grasshopper pie made & the carmel rolls ready for Christmas morning!

Finally it was Christmas Eve... our tradition is to do our little family celebration that night where we open our gifts under the tree & have a special lamb dinner, then we head to the farm for a few days on Christmas morning after doing our Santa stuff & breakfast.  Even though the weather was going to delay our farm gathering (i.e. we would be spending Christmas Day at home), we decided kept with our normal tradition & then just get to enjoy our bonus Christmas day at home!

Christmas Eve

Mmmm... lamb chops

This year Brandon got lots of Star Wars stuff... legos, books, movies & Melanie was all about girl stuff... Strawberry Shortcake, pink legos & princess stuff...

Scooters from Nana & Papa...

oh what fun!

Finally it was time to get (new) jammies on & get the goodies ready for Santa (with a ziploc for Mrs. Claus, in case he wanted to take a few back for her).

Due to the winter storm, we ended up having Christmas day to ourselves at home...

... but first up was getting ready to see if Santa came!

Melanie was hoping for a baby with hair & Brandon wanted a bike with gears!  Good thing they are on the "good" list!

It was a beautiful Christmas morning. Snow had fallen overnight & big, white flakes were still falling... it was a Norman Rockwell kind of morning!

Thanks to our change of plans, we had a relaxing morning playing with toys, having homemade carmel rolls & enjoying being at home.

Melanie had fun feeding 'Honey' in her new high chair while Brandon worked on building his TIE fighter LEGO..

We even got outside for a while to play in all our snow...

The kids had fun on their snowhill... & I snowshoed around the yard...

... & even made a little snowman!

We had a wonderful prime rib Christmas dinner... & fantastic Christmas Day.

Next up... Christmas on the Farm!