Christmas 2009

We started our Christmas early this year, because of the storm.

Kevin's mom called Wednesday night and said it was supposed to start snowing overnight and it wasn't supposed to let up until Saturday. Blizzard warning! She suggested we come out that night in case we couldn't get out the next morning. Since we all live in rural areas, it's pretty much guaranteed that we're on the bottom of the plowing list, so we took her advice. And it's a good thing, too, because when we woke up, there must have been almost a foot of snow on the ground!

And that's when the wrestling began. I guess no holiday is complete without it now. And probably I will be in trouble for posting this photo, but it's a risk I am willing to take.

I KNOW I will be in trouble for posting this, but he knows the risks by now. I can't even remember why Kevin had a bucket on his head in the first place, but it came in handy as a hands-free device when his phone rang.

The girls were so lucky to receive many wonderful gifts from kind, thoughtful and generous family and friends. They were both thrilled to open brand new ice skates from Grandma Bev and Grandpa Jerry! This is Nora's very first pair of real figure skates and you can see how much she loves them.

Dana got these super cute skates with snowflakes on them. Just look at that grin!

Grandma and Grandpa also got Nora a pedicure set, and Jan did her toes for her. I just love how flopped out she is here, relaxing while her toes dry.

We finally made it outside into the storm to put out reindeer food before heading inside to arrange cookies and milk for Santa and settling in for the night.

Nora woke up first. Around 6am. On school days, I have to force this girl out of bed at 8:15am. On Christmas morning, she tossed and turned and chatted with me in bed until I finally let her get up around 7:30.

She was really excited to find gifts under the tree and in her stocking. Among other things, Santa left her these fleece footie pajamas, which was pretty fun.

Dana got matching jammies! Yay!

My family went bowling Saturday night for our Christmas, but I was too busy setting an all-time record high score of 58 to take any photos.

I hope your holidays were as wonderful as ours were!