12 things of Christmas we liked best

12. Opening Presents--always fun with kids in the house.
11. Sleeping in--It took Brian a few days to figure out how to do this, but it is a good thing when we can. He is too excited to sleep the days leading up to Christmas (he is just like the kids).
10. Laptops and wireless internet. How funny we all are that we sit around and Facebook each other when we are in the same room.
9. Pedicures--Paulina, Anne, and I went to get Christmas Eve pedicures. This is in response to #8
8. Golf--Bubba, Dave, Brian, & Trevor got to play 9 holes (it stopped raining) on Boxing Day and in honor of Nana's birth.
7. Food--Ribs and Turkey who can ask for more?
6. A Gudgell Christmas Eve--this was always a great tradition for me growing up, so this year it was fun to invite my aunt and uncle and grandma over for dinner.
5. Baptism--It was truly a white Christmas. Our neighbor Rob and his daughter Darcy got baptized on Christmas day. It is a great story and we are honored to be their friends.
4. Snow--Ok the week before, but Christmas Eve afternoon it tried again, but quickly turned to rain.
3. SKYPE--With this great tool we were able to have my parents with us (from Hungary) opening presents on Christmas morning. They had already fed 30 missionaries and were at home waiting for us to call.
2. Being Secretive--this is always hard not to tell what you got each other for Christmas, but this year my kids did the 12 days of Christmas for a family in our neighborhood. It was fun and challenging (snow) to try to not get caught.
1. FAMILY--It was great having Anne's family & Dave's family down with us to have Christmas and play with. We were grateful that they made the drive. We even survived a Christmas Night power outage with fun games and glow sticks.

I am dreaming no more...

I have always said that when Brian is gone when the weather is extreme here (rain and wind usually). But this time he has missed our snow. No school, no where to go, just the kids and I hanging out. The police only came once today (really, another story). Here is some of what it looked like last night and this morning. It was slushy, wet snow, the heavy stuff. The kids went sledding, and Emily shoveled the driveway--it wasn't melting fast. The road are now staring to dry out. Schools on for tomorrow--one last day before the big Christmas break.

Programs & Parade

Ashley marched and then sung at a program for Veteran's Day in Washington City. Unfortunately the mother had a meeting and it started late, so I was only able to see part of it. She loved the parade part of the day, but not so much the singing stuff.

Meagan & Emily have also had Christmas programs. Emily has a nice movie posted on her web site. You can check it out there. She has come a long way on her flute. What a nice talent for her to have. Meagan and the 2nd grade did a spirited program last week. She was so excited for it and worked extra hard to memorize her lines.

Hunting a Christmas Tree

I have been a blog slacker, so don't be surprised to have many posts to read. Here are some pictures of our trip to get our Christmas tree. We went the weekend before Thanksgiving because of traveling and too many things to do in December. We had a minor problem when we got home and Brian realized that our 14 foot ceilings are only 10 feet, oops. The final picture is it with most of its lights working. We love Charlie Brown Christmas trees!!