Christmas 2009

This year for Christmas we had the opportunity to spend it with my side of the family at our own house! We started Christmas eve morning by going to the Galleria to ice skate. I stayed on the side to get some pics of Bonnie and Elena. Clara, Grandma and Grandpa and I all watched and enjoyed seeing all of the smiling faces. When we left the mall we saw that it was snowing! We could not believe it! I had no idea the snow would stick much less snow all night.

When we got home from the mall, we started getting ready for Christmas Eve service at church. While at church we saw lots of good friends and were blessed by the vocal talents of a sweet 7 year old little girl. When we came home we opened a few presents (the girls all got PJ's to sleep in) and then they went to bed so that Santa could come.

Christmas morning we woke up and Elena ran into our room saying "I can't believe it's Christmas morning!" Of course she wanted to wake everyone up, so we let her and then said they could immediately go look and see what Santa brought them and see what was in their stockings. Elena could not believe her eyes when she saw a pink bike and a big purple bike for Bonnie. Both of which fit in our living room! Clara got a pink swing that she gets to play with as soon as it warms up! : ) We turned on the Chipmunks Christmas album and started getting people up and started getting the plates and napkins ready for our birthday party. A family tradition that I have been doing since I was a little girl is to read the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible and then sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and blow out the candles on some brownies. Then we eat them and drink milk or oj and usually start to open gifts afterward. This year we decided to make breakfast burritos after the brownies so that we could have more to eat fore breakfast. Well, at least I think that was the plan. It ended up working out nicely considering I did a terrible job making brownies from a box! Two years ago I made brownies Christmas morning and as we were singing "Happy Birthday, Jesus" we watched the candles sink into the brownies because they were still hot and the candles were melting INTO the brownies. This year, I thought I would be clever and bake them the night before. Only, this time I made up the batter, put it in the pyrex dish and then put it in the fridge so we could go to church (Christmas Eve). So, when we got home from church, I put them in the oven. Christmas morning, Jason cuts into the brownies and finds that they are completely gooey in the middle...I mean, not even cooked! the edges were ok, but there was not enought to have more than a small sliver of brownie for each of us. So, the burritos came in very handy. : )

We spent the rest of the day hanging out playing with our new toys. On Sunday, the 27th, we all left to go to Branson since my parents have timeshare and we got to go and my Aunts and Uncle got to go too. So, we had Christmas with them Monday night. (More pics to come).

Due to the eventful two weeks, I am going to have to do this entry in multiple entries so that I can get all of the pictures uploaded. So, with that being said, I hope you all had a blessed Christmas, and a very Happy New year.













The whole family Christmas Eve












Clara LOVED the paper!






















Clara touching the snow