Christmas 2008

We are all well and survived Christmas. It began snowing on December 13th and literally didn't stop until just before new year's. There was so much snow piled everywhere - a lot more than last winter combined. I was thankful Allen was home and when people ask him "what did you do on your vacation?" - He can literally say he shoveled snow. Lots and lots of it. In fact on Christmas day there was 2 feet of wet heavy snow on our driveway and with the plows coming by, we were stuck. He started shoveling and it took about 2 hours to clear half of the driveway. There were quite a few days we were unable to receive our mail because there was no way to get to the mailbox. Now it hasn't snowed for a little while. It will be interesting to see what January brings us.

Like I said, Christmas was great. The kids were bouncing off the walls like crazy for the week prior to Santa coming. I have never seen them so excited. I knew if we could get the girls in bed by 8 p.m., we would be okay. Tyler has always been so good at sleeping through everything and most Christmas mornings we have had to wake him up - or he sleeps in until 8 a.m. I have no idea what changed this year. Santa was finished around 11 p.m. or 12 a.m. - and at 1 a.m., Tyler was awake and ready for Christmas. He woke up the girls and sent them in to wake us up. Needless to say, we didn't get any sleep that night. There were a couple of times I woke up and there Tyler was just staring at the Christmas tree - wide awake. So, as Allen and were making notes of things we wanted to remember for next Christmas - like a to do list to make things easier on us, we wrote down - "make sure Ty's alarm clock is turned off."

The kids all enjoyed what they got and had a great day of playing. They all got slippers and I think we as parents have truly realized that we have to choose our battles. As you know, Kylie is extreme girly girl and into princess everything! McKenna is complete opposite and for whatever reason I am unsure of, is into Spiderman everything. So McKenna got spiderman slippers for Christmas. We've decided it is so much better to keep her feet warm, than to fight with her to put on socks and slippers. She has been great at wearing them constantly. As a side note, Kylie did get princess slippers.