Christmas 2016

We started our day at about 6:15am and enjoyed a wonderful morning opening presents.  We are blessed to have both of our families send gifts for all of us.

All lined up and ready to go!

Santa even came for Riley and Maddie... new high chairs!  Found these at Ikea for only $20 each!!  Amazing deal, easy to put together, small since we need two, and easy to clean up.

She couldn't wait to try out some of her stuff!

 To sum up our gifts: Preston's all about Pokemon and Star Wars, Abby: crafts and projects, Kaley: her mini trampoline and dress ups, Twins: clothes, Steve: Star Wars stuff, Me: cookie sheets, a couple of gift cars, and some bath and body works stuff.  We 

We had our first white Christmas with snow actually falling which really makes it that much more magical.  However, the snow kept falling and falling and falling.  We knew we were going to get a lot of snow but holy cow it was insane!!  After our yummy breakfast of monkey bread, bacon, eggs and orange juice, Steve headed outside at about 10am to start clearing off driveways.  Our elderly neighbor Jack can't do his driveway anymore so Steve and the Bishop who lives just a few doors down have told him that they would always take care of snow removal for him.  He has an atv with a snow plow attachment that he said they can use on the bad days.  This definitely qualified!  It was only the second time he used it and he said that it had quite the learning curve but much faster than our old snow blower when there is a ton of snow.  It wasn't much after that that we got the official word that church, even though it was just going to be sacrament meeting, was canceled!  We were shocked.  Our church is just down the road and yet the snow was so thick that it would still be hard for people to get out of their driveways as well as the fact that we have lots of elderly people in our ward and it would not be a good idea for them to be out in that kind of weather.  In the 6 years we have been here this was the first time church was canceled!  

It did feel weird to not go to church and I was looking forward to the Christmas program on Christmas Day, but it was nice to stay in our pajamas all day and watch some of the new movies we got.  We were grateful that we didn't have anywhere we needed to be and we could be safe and warm inside.  

These are our back steps... there are 3 of them, but you can't see them!  

I had to shovel the back porch to let Lucy be able to get out.  The snow drifts were crazy high, like 2 or 3 feet.  I kept watching that chair and watching the snow creep up higher and higher on the legs.

The best gift of the day... backstory: this is my wedding ring that I have had all 12 years of our marriage.  About 2 years ago I lost on of the bigger side stones.  With Steve out of a job there was no way of replacing it so even though it looked a little sad I wore it anyway.  Fast forward to being 6 months pregnant with twins and between weight gain and swelling I had to stop wearing it.  Well 6 months after the twins were born and it still doesn't fit so it has lived in a small jewelry box in our closet.  On our anniversary I was looking for a necklace I don't wear often and thought I should check on my ring.  It wasn't there.  I instantly begin searching frantically and nothing, no ring.  I start to panic and wrack my mind and wonder if baby brain has made me forget where I put it.  A couple of hours later when Steve gets home from his church meetings I ask him if he knows where it is.  He starts to answer no, before starting to smile and letting out a "Dang it!"  I had ruined the surprise.  My ring was safely at the jewelry store being fixed.  I was so relieved that it was found that I didn't care that I had ruined it.  I received my ring on Christmas all fixed and shiny and I love it!  I thought that was so so sweet of him to do.  I really do love him.  My ring still doesn't fit :/  but I will be working on some goals to lose some weight and then either it will fit or I will think about getting it resized. Until then I will just admire it!