Christmas 2009

This Christmas things didn't go exactly as planned, however I think it will forever remain one of our best Christmases ever!

 Christmas Eve it started to sleet a bit in the morning.  My hubby's sister and her kids came in from Austin, TX and we had planned to go over to his mom's house where they were all staying. We saw that the weather was getting pretty rough and we thought it would be best to head over to my MIL's house before it got too bad.  We left home around 10:30am and drove over to her house in MWC.  It was sleeting all the way over.  About an hour after we arrived the snow hit.

We knew that there was going to be snow, but there was conflicting information on just HOW MUCH snow.  At first they said "flurries" then later in the week they said "1-2 inches", then they were reporting 4-7 inches.  We ended up getting a total of 14.1 inches (an all time record) and it was a blizzard!

We made some soup for lunch and I baked some sugar cookies to later decorate with the kids.  The snow continued to fall and conditions outside got worse and worse.  We decided it would be best to stay for the night there rather than try and make it home.  My husbands uncle even ended up staying because he was one of the cars in a 50 car pile up on I-40!  Thankfully he was able to make it to my MIL's house.  Also my husbands brother and his wife and kid ended up staying also.  So, there were 17 of us in my MIL's two bedroom house!

Christmas eve we have a tradition to have pizza, and well, there was no place open to get pizza due to the blizzard, so the men decided to walk in the blizzard up to Target to get some frozen pizza.  The guys got all bundled up in layers upon layers and covered their faces and eyes to avoid getting their face completely wind chapped.  Here you can see what they looked like when they were ready to leave.  It took them well over an hour to get there and back even though it was only a few blocks away.  I heard my nephew lost a shoe in a snow drift on the way there.  Thankfully he found it!

So, the kids began to get cabin fever so it was time to decorate the cookies.  We had a blast doing that.  The kids seemed to really like it.  My hubby started filtering pizzas in and out of the oven.  We had our pizza, then my MIL baked a cake. We have a tradition to bake a cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus after we read the story of His birth out of the bible.  This year I got to read the story from the bible.  Each one of the children holds a piece of the nativity set and moves it into the manger as we get to their part of the story.  They love this and look forward to it every year.  

After that we ate cake, had hot cider and my MIL made snow ice cream (we stayed clear from any yellow snow!)  We were all pretty exhausted and headed off to our various corners of the house to go to sleep.

The next day it was sunny out and we woke up to a gorgeous blanket of snow on everything.  My first white Christmas!  It was beautiful.  The kids opened up their gifts (well the ones from Grandma at least...my kids gifts were at home).  The great thing was is that my kids didn't even CARE that there were gifts there.  They were nice to have and all, but this Christmas was about so much more than presents.  It was about family, and time together.  It was amazing.

After breakfast we decided to venture home.  The roads were scary, but with my husbands excellent driving and his 4WD truck, we made it just fine.  The kids opened their presents  and we started to prepare dinner for family.  The family came over to our house for Christmas dinner.

The day after Christmas we went back to my MIL's house and we all went sledding.  Once every few years I decide to pull the stick out of my rear end and have fun.  I'm so thankful I did, because I felt like such a kid sledding and playing in the snow.  I can't remember the last time I had that much fun.  I laughed until my side hurt.

My hubby sledding!

My nephew and I in a snowball fight

Cookie Catastrophe

Christmas eve I always make sugar cookies and decorate them with the kids.  I've done this since I was a teenager and carried it on with my kiddos.  I love it.  This year I'm excited I get to do this with my niece and nephews also who will be visiting from Austin!  I also make white chocolate covered pretzels on Christmas eve and some other cookies (usually chocolate chip).  I am in the kitchen normally most of the day baking.  This year I decided to do it a bit early and get the baking done so I can relax more on Christmas eve and only do the decorating, also I thought it would be nice to take some cookies to family members tomorrow.  It kinda threw me for a loop and I wasn't prepared for this change of plans.  At around six o clock tonight I stared baking cookies.  Four double batches to be exact.  Yes, that's eight, EIGHT batches of cookies.

My poor hubby comes home starving, to a pitiful looking lasagna on the stove and a wife covered in flour surrounded by what appears to be a cookie explosion in my kitchen.  He is painfully aware that his plans for settling down for a movie and a relaxing evening just flew out the window, and he is going to have to come to the rescue of his disorganized crazy wife once again.

Thankfully we got the cookies finished and I owe my husband and children thanks for helping to bail me out of my cookie catastrophe I had going on in the kitchen.

I just seem to always bite off more (cookies) than I can chew.

Magical Evening

Tonight we took the two oldest children to the Oklahoma City Ballet to see "The Nutcracker.".  I had been looking forward to this for quite some time, since we had been planning this since last year.  (Last year we went but didn't take the kids because we assumed that they would get bored, we later regretted not taking them and planned all year to make sure that we took them this time).  I had no idea how much I would enjoy this evening with my kids though, it was so much better than I could have ever imagined!

We took a photo opportunity by the Christmas tree since we were dressed our best.  Brett looked so cute and handsome in his vest and tie, and Myah was looking so grown up and pretty in her red dress.  Brett thinks he is James Bond since he has a vest and tie on, and he tries to pose like him.  I told him that if he took one serious pose that I would let him pose like James Bond afterwards.  He agreed.

Next we were off to Pearls Oyster Bar for dinner.   Brett was so adorable.  On the way there he said, "since we are going to a fancy restaurant can we be nice people?"  Jamin and I laughed and replied "honey, we ARE nice people."  He said ,"no that's not what I mean."  I'm still not exactly sure what he meant about that.  The kids were on their best behavior and so well mannered at the restaurant.

After dinner we went to the civic center.  They were offering photos with a cast member.  The kids stood in front of the large Christmas tree in the civic center with the dancer who played Clara and took a photo (we had to pay for that one, we will be getting that later).  We found our seats and settled in.  Brett was on the edge of his seat the entire time.  The kids LOVED it.  I was afraid they would get bored.  Myah was mesmerized with the ballet dancers, and Brett didn't get antsy until the end.  He did look over at his dad and giggle and say, "Dad, I can see their weenier!"

Afterwards the kids wanted hot chocolate and dessert, so we took them to a small Italian restaurant across the street called "Trattoria".  When we got there they asked, "are you here with the party?" we told them no and didn't think much of it.  There was a large table set up behind our table.  Jamin looked over at me and said "they are having some kind of party coming in, must be people that went to the ballet."  We ordered dessert and hot cocoa.  They brought the kids each their own silver pot full of cocoa.  The kids were EXTREMELY impressed.  Here are some photos of the kids with their hot chocolate!

A few moments later a lady came over to our table.  She complimented our kids and how cute they looked and asked if we had just gone to the ballet.  She introduced herself as the chair of the patron committee for the ballet.  She said "we are having the patrons of the ballet come here for dinner and some of the cast will be here along with the artistic director for the Oklahoma City ballet!  Make sure you stay around so I can introduce you to them!"  She seriously was so sweet and nice I couldn't' believe it!

Moments later the dancers begin to file in.  The kids got to meet the dancer who played the Sugar Plum fairy and talk with her for a while.  She loved the kids, it was so cute!  Brett got to meet the Russian dancers from the second act (they were his favorite), the Caviller and we also got to meet Robert Mills the artistic director for the OKC ballet.

It was a magical evening with my kids, one none of us will ever forget!  I'm so glad we took them and got to spend this evening with them!