Christmas Recap and More Snow

Mike's mom and dad brought Emily home on Christmas evening. I think she was glad to be home. She immediately went inside and checked out everything that Santa left. She wanted to see if he ate any goodies - and he did. He also left a note for Emily saying that he was sorry he missed her.

After Nanny and Pops left, we all sat down and opened the gifts that Santa left for us. Emily got a Nintendo DSi, in pink, of course. She also got some games for it, a couple books, a Perfection game, an Uno Moo game, a baby doll, and some other things that I can't recall right now. I think Emily was very happy with the things that Santa left for her.

Mike got a laptop, a new electric razor, an OU t-shirt, and a few other things.

Santa brought me a Kindle e-book reader, a cover and book light for my Kindle, some bubble bath (my faves!) and some other fun things.

Santa was good to all of us this year!

After we opened presents, we had a non-traditional Christmas supper - BBQ meatballs with cheesy rice. I think I prefer the traditional Christmas dinner - turkey and dressing, sweet potatoes, hot buttery rolls and more!

On Saturday, we got out and went over to Mike's parents house for the traditional Christmas lunch with the family. After lunch, we did a white elephant gift exchange. Mike got some Christmas mugs, Emily got a small candle, and I got a large pink croco purse/bag. As you can see, it was a lot of fun.

On Sunday after church, we went back over to Mike's parents house to open presents with his family. We normally do this on Christmas Eve, but of course we were snowed out.

It was a busy and unusual Christmas weekend, but we are so thankful to have family close and so thankful that we were able to spend time with them.

This weekend, we'll go down to celebrate Christmas with my family. Lets just hope the weather holds out! We're getting a couple inches more snow tonight on top of all the snow that is left over from the Christmas Eve blizzard. I have had enough snow! I am ready for some warmer weather and some sunshine!


At least we're headed SOUTH in a few days. Hopefully it will be warmer down there.

Hoping ...

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Unexpected Christmas

Christmas 2009 has definitely been one for the record books. Oklahoma City recorded over 14 inches of snow on Christmas Eve. Because of all the snow, we were not able to pick Emily up from Nanny and Poppa's house yesterday. She'd spent the night on Wednesday night to help decorate Christmas cookies and ended up having to stay two nights instead.

Santa came to our house anyway. He brought lots of presents and left a stocking full of goodies too. He ate some cookies and drank some milk and left Emily a letter saying that he's sorry he missed her. She'll open her presents as soon as she gets home.

The first thing Emily told Nanny this morning was that she was ready to go home. We're going to try to make that happen today. Mike has been out working on getting the car out of the snow drift this morning. He has made good progress. It would be very helpful if we had an SUV or a truck or something a little higher than a car.

Since Emily is not here to open presents, Mike and I decided to go for a walk in the snow. I wish I had taken my yard stick with me to see how high some of the drifts were. The south and east sides of the house were some of the deepest areas.

Someone had been walking in the snow before we got there. Maybe a bunny?

The snow collected on some of the cedar tree branches. The snow and high winds broke off the top of one of our small trees in the front yard.

It was so so cold outside this morning. I think the TV news guys said the wind chill was something like 7 degrees. So we did not stay outside for long.

We came inside and warmed up. Not much we can do until Emily gets home so I thought I would write a long, long blog post to take up some time. Ha!

This is really not how Christmas was supposed to be. Mike and I had it all planned out. We have some nice surprises for Emily and cannot wait until she opens her presents. Christmas morning without our child is just not right.

Yesterday was the same way. It was hard just watching the snow and not knowing how we would be able to get Emily home. I spent most of my day keeping busy - cooking, cleaning, wrapping gifts, and making Christmas cookies.

I swore I was not going to make all those cookies by myself, but what else did I have to do? I could not find my Christmas cookie cutters so I made all the cookies round. The decorating was all me. Isn't it lovely?

I think our Christmas dinner with the family is going to be postponed so I don't know what we'll have for Christmas lunch. Probably sandwiches, devilled eggs and sweets. I don't think I have anything more gourmet than that.

I can't wait until Emily gets home.

Merry Christmas everybody! JESUS is the reason for the season.

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Happy Birthday

So sorry about my lack of posts the last few weeks. I have been without a computer for quite some time. Then I got it back and something else messed up on it the next day. Sooo frustrating! But it looks like I'm back on track now.

Lots of things have happened that I'd like to share, but I can only do one thing at a time.

This weekend, I celebrated my birthday. On Saturday night, Mike and Emily took me out to a wonderful pizza dinner with a little shopping afterwards. Then we went home and enjoyed some angel food cake with fluffy white frosting - that Emily helped me bake.

(In case you wanted to know, the frosting is by Betty Crocker and comes in a small blue box. Sometimes this frosting is hard to find. My WM Supercenter does not carry it, but I can find it in a small local supermarket.)

Mike and Emily also got me a set of "Magnolia blossom" wall plaques that I saw online and really liked.

On Sunday after church, we went to The Cheesecake Factory with the family to continue the celebration. I had their Shepherd's Pie for lunch followed by their Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake. It was so so good. It had layers of red velvet cake and cheesecake finished off with white chocolate. Yum!

All in all, it was a great weekend filled with fun, family, and great friends.

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