Merry Christmas!

As we were driving home on Christmas Eve, Austin said, "It is going to be really hard to go to sleep tonight."  True to his Austin spirit of perpetual excitement, he walked in our room at 5:15 a.m.  We let him open his stocking which kept him busy for a little while, and Greg graciously got up with him about an hour later.  The girls didn't get up until about 8:30 though, so he had a lesson in patience.  We woke up to a Christmas Blizzard, but that didn't stop my parents from coming out to watch the kids open their presents.  We ate the traditional yummy breakfast casserole and sweet rolls, and reveled in Star Wars, Princesses, and Winnie the Pooh all morning.    

Paige would have been thrilled if the only thing she received the entire day was a sucker in her stocking.  Although she did love her new books as well, and Nana was extremely patient to read them to her over and over again.

Storm Trooper Austin and wanna-be Storm Trooper Matt:

Here is Matt paying Macy one dollar for a back-rub (she actually got a new, electronic toothbrush in her stocking, so she used that as her massager):

Would you believe - more candy for Paige!

Christmas #2 at my parents house.  They spoiled us with new bedding, a huge bag of dress-ups for Macy, an awesome Lego set for Austin, and new puzzles for Paige.  We snacked all day long and enjoyed visits from all the grandparents.  Fun day!

Austin really wanted to get Greg a BYU hat (completely his idea).  So, we went to the store and he picked this one out.  My dad actually put it on his head.  Amazingly, his head didn't melt away or explode into a thousand pieces - as I'm sure he believed would happen if that logo ever touched his skin.  This is actually a really good picture of him:  

Since this is typically how every image of my dad turns out:

The most precious gift of the day: My old clogs.  My mom found these as she was cleaning out some old boxes, and my dad polished them up.  The blue ones fit Macy perfectly, and she loves wearing them.  She says that she likes the way they sound.  So, as I am writing this, I can hear something that sounds a lot like Riverdance on my kitchen floor.  As my husband will attest, I am not one for the overly-sentimental (especially when it has to do with "stuff"), but these just melted my heart.  I loved them so much when I was little, and now my little Dutch blondie with her wooden shoes is just as thrilled!

As we drove home, I could not believe the amount of snow we received.  We had at least double my parents (who live a mere seven miles away).  It was crazy and so beautiful.  Since we live on a private road, our roads had not been plowed, and very few people had shoveled their walks (it looked like most people just stayed in for the day).  It was such a gorgeous scene: Tons of un-disturbed snow, Christmas lights glowing under snow drifts, and the night sky extremely bright from the reflection of the pure, white snow.  A perfect, peaceful Christmas scene.