Christmas Eve/Day

We woke up Christmas Eve morning to a surprise on the couch - presents! Ben and Elizabeth had a great time opening the presents that they had gotten for each other, and one from me and Tom.
Elizabeth got some princess doll dress-up stuff,

and Ben got a dino land for all his dinosaurs. (when am I going to learn about the jammies??!!)

We then headed to church in the early afternoon in the "blizzard". It really seemed like a blizzard, or maybe a Texas blizzard, because the snow was blowing so hard! We literally slipped down the big hill out of the church parking lot. Not great weather but fun once we got to where we were going.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Tom's side of the family. I caught a rare photo of Tom, holding Ameila.

Before all the present opening we went outside to play in the snow. We got about 3 inches.

Here's Ben all bundled up to go outside. Can you tell he's a TX kid? No snow boots here - but plastic bags worked well enough for the length of time we were outside.
Elizabeth had a blast outside and did not want to come in.

We then had all the kids come together for our annual photo shoot in front of the Christmas tree. Every year we have had a new child in front of the tree - this year it was Amelia.

The 2 oldest - best buddies!

All 6 younger cousins.

Amelia was having such a good time at the party!

The kids all played a game with the presents Aunt Nancy gave them.

Elizabeth got an old fashion top that she loved to play with. I have to explain the outfit - we knew we would be going out in the snow so we just grabbed a few shirts and pants that we could layer under her coat...ended up not looking too cute for the pictures :)

Lots of the adults from our group - snacking!

We had a harrowing drive home in the night after all that snow that turned to pure ice on the roads. We almost didn't make it up one hill (along with 5 others cars with their emergency lights on) but thank goodness we made it home so Santa could come (and Jake could get out of his kennel).

Christmas morning! We opened presents from Santa at our apartment. Ben was showing off some of his loot.

We were busy opening, playing, opening, and playing.

Elizabeth got a lot of books - one of her favorite things!

Her special present - the princess castle!

Ben got his first remote control train - he loved it!

Once the ice finally melted we headed over to my parent's for Christmas. The kids are opening their stockings here.

Here's Ben's pile of presents. Yes, they are completely spoiled!

Elizabeth's trying to guess what's in the big box! (Grandpa picked out golf clubs for all the kids - they are so excited to go golfing with grandpa!)

Elizabeth with her pile.

This was a favorite present of everyone. When we looked at model homes with Elizabeth she saw this room with a stage that she just loved (of course). It had a curtain and behind the curtain there was a microphone and all the dress up stuff a girl could want. Ever since she saw this, she decided that was what she wanted in her new room. There is no stage in her room (sorry Elizabeth!) but there is this nook that we are going to put a curtain in and her dress up behind it, and my mom found this really fun microphone that claps and plays music...it was a favorite of all the kids. Unfortunately it didn't work very well, it kept cutting in and out, so it will be exchanged but the kids all loved it!

See - they loved it!

The boys were running around playing with their bat guns.

We ended the long but fun day with a movie on the couch.
We were so lucky that we got to see all of our family - and that we were all healthy! I find that to be a Christmas miracle! (there were lots of illnesses swimming around the family - but we were lucky enough to all be healthy on Christmas.) We had a wonderful holiday, and I'm sad it's all over!