Wonderful white Christmas

It's the day after Christmas and I'm sitting here at the table looking out to the beautiful white snowdrifts that cover our backyard. I confess that I like the whole idea of a white Christmas and yes, I like the song and movie of the same name too. When I was younger I would always get mad if we had a brown Christmas. One especially cruel year we received several inches of snow the week before the holiday and then it promptly warmed up and was all melted by the big day.

This year we were promised not only a white Christmas, but a huge snowstorm burying the whole state white Christmas. I know several of my friends were none too pleased with this forecast since it would prove difficult for travel both for family members or for themselves in the effort to spend this day with loved ones. Sad to say, I was actually looking forward to a big storm with lots of snow. I'll admit the timing sucked a bit but I did get my white Christmas.

So what did we actually do??? Well, I spent the last few days before the storm watching the weather reports to make sure this was for real and not just meteorologists using up air time. Thankfully I had finished all my gift shopping so I did not have to worry about the last minute panic shopping some poor folks had to do. I also made sure that the teacher gifts went to school on Monday or Tuesday. I decided to do the grocery shopping with the thought of having Christmas dinner at home instead of in Yankton. I called it the back-up food. Hubby did decide we should do turkey instead of the pork roast I bought so the roast is in the freezer. By Wednesday we were prepared so all we had to do was sit and wait.

Christmas Eve day dawned cold and grey with a small amount of white stuff having fallen the night before but this was truly the calm before the storm. I took the kids outside to burn off extra energy and was very thankful my neighbor has a snow blower so I didn't have to spend 30 minutes shoveling the end of my driveway. The loving husband had to work but got off early enough to run into Sioux Falls for a few last minute things and to pick up our pizza. We decided to go to the 6 pm Mass since that was the Children's Mass. By then things were pretty icky out and they were soon going to be closing the interstates. Our church is only a few miles from our house and in town so we were OK. The kids did really well sitting through the service. We decided to sit right down in front so everyone could see what was going on. Andrew loved singing the songs and he sat there with his book on his lap "reading" along. When it came time for the sermon, the priest decided to call all the children up front and sit and talk to them about the Nativity scene and the meaning of Christmas. He was asking the children questions and they were giving answers. My moment of pride was when Matthew said he learns about Jesus from his mom and dad and I'm not sure why but Carolyn said she learns about Jesus in school---maybe she's confusing the religion lessons we do with Matthew at home. My moment of wanting to slide under the pew came when Matthew decided to tell the priest he had a song about baby Jesus and then proceeded to sing it to him. I don't know what he sang but the priest seemed impressed and the congregation gave him applause. When I asked Matthew where he learned this song he told me the words were in his brain. After the service was over we stopped and looked at the dancing lights. There is a house that is decked out with 100,000 lights and choreographed to music a few blocks from our house so we make a point to visit several times during the month. After we got home it was then time to get the kids settled down and into bed. That took a while. Carolyn was too excited to sleep and kept asking when Santa Claus was going to get to our house. Andrew decided to be a huge turkey and not go to bed until hubby finally took him upstairs around 10:30. I then made a mad dash for the stash of gifts and "Santa" stuff in the spare bedroom.

When it comes to buying Christmas gifts, I'm on top of it and I'm usually done a few weeks before Christmas. When it comes to wrapping said gifts...well that's usually done as last minute as possible. I hate wrapping gifts. If I could stuff everything into gift bags I would but small children love ripping open gifts so wrap I must. I did buy decorated gift boxes so I compromised and wrapped the toys and then put the clothing into the boxes and gift bags. I also wrapped the loving husband's gifts too since I know he wrapped all mine. I find that doing the wrapping and filling the stockings late Christmas Eve while watching some sort of Christmas concert or church service is quite enjoyable. Hubby came down later in the evening and we finished watching the Pope do Mass from Vatican City. We then spent another hour or so flipping channels watching bits and pieces from the various 24 hour marathon showings of different movies. It was close to 3 am when we finally decided to go to bed.

Matthew was the first to wake up Christmas morning and that was a little before 7. Carolyn was up about a half hour later. They both wanted to wake Andrew up but thankfully hubby convinced them to not do that. Andrew woke up about an hour later on his own and was quite cheerful. After he got up then the opening of the presents commenced. I tried not to go too overboard with the toys for the kids. Andrew got a total of 2 toys and Matthew and Carolyn got 3. I got one item for all the kids to share..it is called a wobble board. It is a balance board somewhat like a Wii board but it has colors on top and you have to tip the colored part to the floor in order to play the game. Hubby got himself a gun safe earlier this month and called it his gift from me. I suck at getting him gifts so I was more than happy to let him do that. I did get him a few small items from the kids so he had something to open.

During the chaos that was gift opening, the kids handed me three gifts of various sizes. The first one was long and flat. The loving husband had framed the shooting target I had shot back in September. How sweet. The second was an average size box. I opened it and the USPS bag inside and found the t-shirt I wanted. OK, not the exact one but even better. After I got my black belt I told the loving husband I wanted a t-shirt that said "black belt mom" on it. He decided that the shirts from the online stores implied that my kid was the black belt so he found a different site and created a shirt that said "This mommy's a black belt". How cute. Both of those gifts were kind of expected since I did tell the husband I wanted to frame my target and I wanted to get a t-shirt. It was the third gift that totally blew me away.

The box said peanut butter granola bars and had an odd rattle to it like a gift card was inside. My brain was thinking i tunes or JC Penny's. What came out when I opened it was white ticket that said Minnesota Vikings in purple along the side. It took a moment to comprehend exactly what it was I was holding in my hand and then it hit me. A GAME TICKET!!!!!! At that point all I could say was "oh my" and "I'm gonna cry". The wonderful amazing incredibly loving husband had bought me a ticket to see the Vikings play the New York Giants at home in the Metrodome. The game is next Sunday so I'll have a whole weekend of no husband and kids while I head over to Minnesota. I have friends in the area so I have a place to stay and things to do. I'm sooooooo excited.

After the gifts we fed the kids cinnamon rolls and then dressed up and headed outside to dig ourselves out. I got some nice shots of the kids playing in the big snow mounds. We have wonderful neighbors who own snow blowers so some of the big plowing was done for us. No travel was advised and the interstates were closed so we were snowed in. Good thing I bought back up Christmas dinner. The turkey was great. The kids spent the afternoon playing with their new toys and watching Christmas specials on TV. Later that evening hubby went back outside to shovel more snow since it was snowing and blowing most of the day. We had waffles for supper and the kids ate way too much candy. All in all it was a great day.

Well Christmas has come and gone. Carolyn wants Santa Claus to visit tonight but I reminded her he only visits on Christmas Eve. We still have to do Christmas with Jim's family since we were not able to do it on Thursday or even today. We also have to go to Chamberlain on Monday to meet my folks. I'm hoping the roads are cleared by then and we can travel safely. Now that I got my white Christmas I'm good for this year. We got dumped on and have about 18-19 inches of the white stuff. More, if you measure the snow drifts. I'm hoping that's the last snow storm we get this winter. I also want good traveling weather this week and next, especially next Saturday.