The Melting Pot: Christmas '09

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Christmas '09

White Christmases are really overrated! At least the kind that cause blizzards. In years past I always felt a little disappointed that the ground wasn't softly blanketed in powdery Christmas snow, like in my Minnesota childhood. I was actually pretty excited that the weatherman was predicting a major snow - a prediction that sounded convincing enough for us to go to Home Depot to buy a snow shovel. The nostalgic feeling that I was having about a white Christmas flew out the window when I pulled out of the drive with my three babies in the car to drive downtown to church so that our family could light the candle on the Advent Wreath. Despite getting the minivan stuck twice on the road that evening, we made it safely. Sadly, we had to cancel our annual Christmas Eve open house because the conditions were just to treacherous. We really missed celebrating that evening with my parents and close friends. But, we still had a full house because Michael's sister DeAnn, her husband, and their four children were up from Texas to spend Christmas with us. The Hodges were also able to slide over since our houses are pretty close. On Christmas Day, my parents were able to dig out of their driveway (it took them several hours) and make the 6 mile drive to our home for Christmas lunch. The snow provided hours of afternoon fun for the big kids after lunch, so there was an upside.

Backtracking a little, the kids had so much fun Christmas morning. With every gift that was opened, Sarah and Andrew demanded that everyone close their eyes, "No peeking!" until the paper was off. Then they would yell, "Ta da!" or "Surprise!" and everyone would have to ooh and aah over the gift. For the second year in a row, Sarah asked Santa for a candy cane. And, seriously, if that had been the only thing he left, she would have been perfectly happy. He left her 4 candy canes, so it was really her lucky day! She liked her other things, but those candy canes were the prized possession. Andrew asked Santa for a banana, but ended up being more interested in his own candy cane. Sarah's other favorite things were the headlamp, butterfly wings, and soccer ball. Andrew was really excited about the train set and the play kitchen.

I bought this gingerbread house kit at Sam's Club a little over a week before Christmas. I told the kids that we couldn't open it until the cousins arrived. As soon as their van pulled into our drive, Sarah and Andrew had the kit in their hands ready to greet them at the door. Thankfully the cousins were really good sports and went to work helping my kids.