Best Christmas EVER!

We had SUCH a fantastic time this Christmas! Watching my two sweet girls having fun, and seeing Madison really understanding presents and Santa for the first time, was just magical!

I spent Christmas Eve helping my mom cook and get ready for our big dinner party that evening. It was pretty cold in the morning, and they said we should be seeing snow flurries by noon. Ya, I've heard that one before. About a month or so ago, it snowed for about 10 minutes on the way to work, but of course, it's so warm here, it never sticks. Yesterday it was about 70 degrees, so I figured if it did ever snow, it'd melt as it hit the ground.

This morning, around 11, it was raining, and I could see some of those "raindrops" on the windshield were little snowflakes, but of course, they melted the SECOND they hit the windshield. But THEN....it started actually snowing!!! When we got home around 11:45, it was actually snowing. I told Katelyn, jokingly, "too bad it wont stick, so we won't be able to make a snow baby" bc I made one with madison after her first christmas when we had a snow day in january. But then it started snowing more and more and harder and harder. They werent huge flakes, but there was a MILLION of them! and the wind was crazy...it was blowing the snowflakes nearly straight across the yard! So we opened the blinds and cooked some yummy Christmas food while watching the snow and listening to Christmas songs. Madison and I decorated her gingerbread house, made Santa some cookies and wrapped some more presents. While we were decorating the gingerbread house, Madison said, "Mommy, you know what makes me happy? You're decorating this house with me!" and I told her she made me so happy then she said, "You know what else makes me happy? That you love me!" awww...can she BE any sweeter?! LOVE HER!!!

Later, I took the girls home, we all got showers, then took their clothes with us to my mom's house while Gordon slept. He still wasn't feeling well...had a fever and chills, so he was going to meet us at my mom's in a few hours. As he layed back down in bed, Madison told him, "Daddy, get up! You have to come with us for the party!!!" lol She was so excited! I explained that he was going to take a nap bc he didn't feel well, so he'd meet us later. She went and gave him a hug and a kiss to make him feel better. What a sweet baby girl!!!

I put her shoes on her and told her to wait there by the door while I put Katelyn and a few things in the car. I walked back in to find Madison had layed on the floor by the shoes and had just fallen asleep right there on the floor! She was sooooooooo exhausted! It was 4pm and she hadn't napped at all...not that she didn't have the opportunity! I put her in bed at my mom's house and she decided to play "10 little monkeys jumping on the bed" instead of sleeping....well, at least she didn't fall off and bump her head! lol

Around 5:00, Madison fell asleep watching TV since she hadn't napped alllll day long, then Katelyn fell asleep shortly afterwards. My family and everyone else were all going to come over at around 6:30, so it was perfect timing for them to take a nap. They were going to need it bc by the time we get done with our extended family dinner party, then open our own immediate family gifts and all, it's ALWAYS past midnight...sometimes 1am!

By the time everyone started coming, the snow on the ground was actually accumulating and it was snowing really hard! It was actually a white Christmas....on Christmas Eve...in TEXAS of all places! Wow. That is just crazy! It's fun for us, but I was thinking, when I heard the guy on the radio forecasting "blizzard like conditions", that some northerner was in tx visiting and hearing that must have made him laugh! Blizzard? Really? Come on, now, we KNOW that is NOTHING like a blizzard!!! It was windy as could be, but I'm not sure I'd call it a blizzard...though they said the wind was going to get up to 45mph, which I wouldn't argue with by the time the night ended...that wind was HARSH!!!

We all had a great time, had a great dinner, yummy desserts and then we got a pick with all the kids in front of the tree. My mom had bought them all Santa hats and it was a cute pic! Then we had our exchange, which was entertaining as always! The funniest gifts were the christmas story night light Stephanie brought and the ornament of the same variety that I brought (compliments of Madison! lol).

After everyone left, there was just my immediate family left and we opened all of our presents. My dad was playing Santa as he sat on the floor handing out all of the presents to everyone, as we opened them one at a time, so it took a while, but it's nice to see what everyone gets instead of everyone ripping into everything all at once then it's over too quick! Well, as my dad sat in front of the tree handing out things, Gordon was bringing other presents from behind the tree, stacking them for each person. When my dad thought he was done, he got up and turned around shocked to see a huge pile of gifts and said, "what the hell?!" lol It was so funny!!!! He thought we were so done opening presents, then there was a stack of at least 20 more gifts to open! We were all laughing so hard at his reaction! The kids were all really good...they usually get pretty whiny towards the end, bc well, they're tired and its usually at least midnight. But they took some game into the front room and played that while waiting for the next gifts, so they were okay. Katelyn conked out on my mom's shoulder when we first started opening gifts, so Madison was helping me open Katelyn's. It was a long night of presents, but so much fun! We all had a great time, and my brother (the doctor) was as generous as he always is, and gave everyone WAY too much. He just likes to spend his money on other people, yet never asks for anything...so hard to shop for him bc he just buys himself EVERYTHING he needs/wants! lol He even bought me a gift for Andrew...some bath toys for the new baby!

I got about $250 in Babies R US gift cards, which is awesome, bc of course we'll need it!!! My parents gave us some money and my brother did, too, so now I have $450 sitting on my counter...tomorrow I'm going shopping for a new dishwasher....I HATE mine and am sooooo ridiculously excited! I didn't want to spend more money replacing ours since we just bought the washer/dryer, but hey, since this isn't technically my money...it's a gift...it will be happily spent at home depot!! Now...gotta start shopping!!!

At the end of the night, when we were loading up the cars with all of our goodies, I was surprised to find that the snow was actually pretty thick on the grass, and the sidewalks were all ICY! I had gone to the car and almost slipped near the car! So gordon went out to take the rest of the stuff along with the kids to the car, so I didn't slip and hurt myself or the baby. Scary stuff! As I drove home with the kids in the car (Gordon had brought his car since he came later after sleeping for a while), I drove super slowly since the streets were only lit by the streetlights and I couldn't really tell if it was icy or not.

As we drove home, Madison told me that we had gotten a lot of toys. I told her, yes, her family loves her and gave her lots of presents. She said, "But Mommy, we have much toys...our house is going to broke!" lol ah, the wisdom of a three year old!!! lol Little did she know there were TONS and TONS more to come tomorrow morning!!!!

We got home about 1am and the kids (thankfully) went right to sleep...what a fun, but long night!!