Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve at our house can be a bit complicated. Abbi spends Christmas Eve with her mom and Christmas day with us. Easy enough right? It would be if Cedar Springs and Traverse City were closer and the weather was better. We weren't entirely sure Clint was going to be able to get her that night but there was just enough of a hole in the storm to let him drive up and back. It was still a yucky drive but they made it. Caelun and I stayed home to make it easier for Clint to concentrate on driving with out a loud little person in the back seat. Caelun even cooperated by taking a second late nap which he never does . It was so late he slept right through Santa dropping off the presents so they were all there when Sissy and daddy walked in the door. It was quite a sight to see. Even though we see the presents Santa left because we are up after he has come and gone we don't open them until Christmas morning. Well except we get to open one present form each other and that is new jammies. That way we look good in all the pictures I take in the morning. We always have home made soup and fresh rolls before we go to bed. If Cae and I are going with them I make it ahead in the crock pot and this time I just had it simmering on the stove. Abbi usually requests bean soup but Clint asked for chicken noodle. Santa sure had lots of snow for that sleigh and I think Rudolf's nose got a work out.

Really I can't open them? What if I just run my car over them? Would that be okay?
Gratuitous cute pose for mommy

Look Santa filled the stockings!

Wow look at everything Santa left!

Yeah Abbi and daddy are home and we can open our jammies!

How do I do this dad?

I got it now!

What if I throw it on the ground- how would that work?

All done right?

Abbi's turn.

Apparently her new socks smell good- I have smelled her old socks and they do not smell good.

Abbi opens another box.

Big smile she must like it!

Yeah she likes them- black with white poka-dots just her style!

Daddy's turn.

No poka-dots for daddy.

Mommy's turn.

No poka-dots for mommy either but Abbi still seems to think that they are cool.

Soft and fuzzy.

Caelun gets into his jammies and has some milk.

Yeah Christmas Eve!
Abbi gets in to her jammies.

And we are off to bed- to all a good night.

The Big SNOW

Did I mention I married a man that used to live in Traverse City? Luckily for me when he moved down here he brought his snow blower. Cedar Springs is the long underwear capital of the world and we normally have a snowy winter here, on the edge of the lake effect coming off of Lake Michigan, but this is a lot of snow even for us. These pictures are across two snow storms- we have gotten two more since. So far this season we are at a total of sixty- yes that is a six with a zero inches. Fifty of those inches fell between the first of December and Christmas day. How far away is spring?

Clint finishing digging out the mail box.

Our neighbor's van across the street.


Clint digging out the cars


There ARE vehicles under there!

After the next snow- Caelun and I off to deliver goodies to the neighbors-

There are cookies and warm bread in the bag.

You can see in the background- the Taurus is buried again.

Another neighbor's fence and the side walk that has been snow blowed.

Caelun thinks wow that is a lot of snow!

This is the walk way up to our house

Time to come in and warm up- bottles of warm milk for everyone!

Cupcakes

Abbi received as a present a Christmas cupcake kit from one of our neighbors. She did a lovely job of making and decorating them and I even got one surreptitious picture before she caught me and started covering her face with her hands. Her little brother couldn't resist the delectable cakes and darned if he isn't taller than we all realized. You can surmise the outcome.

The baker hard at work.

Under construction

Ta Da!

Here comes the felon- what is that on his face?

Busted!

I see the evidence now.

The deconstruction.
"I sorry- I couldn't help myself- it was so tasty!"

Decorating the tree

We go the tree home, got the space ready, and over the course of a couple days got it up, lights, and fully decorated. Again Abbi wasn't interested-"to much work" okay - again I am chalking it up to being a middle schooler. Clint gave her a hard time about "are presents to much work?" she decided they are okay-ha ha! I had lots of help no need to worry. Clint, Caelun, and even the cats got in on the action, and of course we had to hide the pickle.
First we have to clean- Caelun LOVES vacuums of any kind-

mommy's dream child in that regard.

Such a good helper

Almost ready

Oooooo lights!

Daddy is soooo funny with the lights.

Goofy daddy!

Miss Kitty comes to help- mommy has soooo much help!

Pretty tree with all the lights.

Time to hide the pickle how long will it take for Abbi to find it?

Meggie helps with the garland.

Meg is such a good helper- if we are going to decorate trees
we should decorate cats as well- right?

Let's see- what should I do to "help"?

It needs to be just like this...

How does this go?

Don't we have the best tree ever!