White Christmas Eve!!

Christmas Eve started out just as busy as the night before. I wanted to get out and deliver my treats to my friends before the snow storm came in the afternoon. Yes, that is right -- we actually had a white Christmas!!!! I was SO excited. They haven't had a white Christmas in North Texas since 1992, so it was pretty special.

Here are my cookie packages that I brought over to Courtney, Patti, Heather and the neighbors behind us.
After we got the kitchen cleaned up from the night before and delivered our treats, Lily and I had more baking to do. We had to make Chip's special coffee cake to eat on Christmas morning.

As usual, Lily was a big help.

Lily gave Britney her puppy dog to hang out with.

..................................

After Lily's nap we went over to my Mom's house for Christmas Eve dinner and to open presents from my parents, Paula & Frank, Aunt Linda & Uncle Scott (and Jeremy) and Uncle Shawn & Aunt Susan.

My Mom surprised Lily by calling Aunt Linda on the skype. The above photo shows Lily's initial reaction, but then she got really shy and wouldn't talk to my sister at all. It was kinda weird and surprising.

Since Lily was so weirded out by the skype, we let her open one present early in hopes to cheer her up. She got a baby Ariel from Aunt Linda and Uncle Scott and LOVED it!

Lily and Ariel

Lily and Ariel helping Dad and Mom cook.

Someone was hungry (although she only ate the rolls, as usual).

Yummy roll!

After dinner we had to go check out the snow!!!!!!

There was a lot more than we got a few weeks ago!

It was windy and cold too.

My Dad made a little snowman.

We decided to try to call Linda again and open some more presents before we went back out in the snow some more. She was a little more talkative, but not much.

She got a camera from Paula & Frank!

And a tea set from Shawn and Susan.

Lily bought my Dad these foam swords and they were a huge hit -- with both Dad and Lily!

On guard!

She also got a cheerleader doll from Aunt Susan & Uncle Shawn and you can see by the smile on her face that she was happy.

We took a break from presents and changed into our play clothes to go back to the snow!

Check out all that snow!!

Of course, no snow storm is complete without a sword fight!!

Making snowballs.

I couldn't get enough pictures of me in the snow! Did I mention I was excited?

Lily also got my Dad a clown suit to wear to her birthday party!! :)

(Lily gives the best gifts)

She got a tool set from my parents.

And a scooter!

My Dad also got a set to make balloon animals (also for Lily's birthday party).

He is pretty good!

(FYI -- Lily is wearing half her Christmas outfit and half her "play in the snow" clothes -- it makes for an interesting look)

Her favorite gift of all, is the Princess Vanity from my parents!

Just for the record (and so I remember) she also got an Ice Cream Play Doh set and Candy Land from Linda and Scott and Chutes and Ladders, Mega Blocks, Coloring book and a yo yo from my parents.

Back at home, one last time playing in the snow before bed.

Big dork still so excited about the snow. I have handfuls and I love it!! :)

After we got Lily down for bed, Chip had to help out Santa by assembling Lily's bike.

Bounce Houses & Cookies

Today was a BUSY day. It is nearly 11pm and this is the first time I have really stopped to relax (and even now I am blogging!). I woke up before Lily who slept in until 8:15 and got ready to go meet our friends for a play date at Boomerangs at 9am. Once Lily woke up, I got her dressed and made her breakfast to eat in the car and we were off to meet Kathleen & Avery, Meridith & Taylor & Paisley and Erin & Noble. Lily had so much fun playing and bouncing with her friends from Gymboree and surprisingly it wasn't crowded at all. In fact the first hour we were there we had the whole place to ourselves. After the kids were all bounced out Lily and I went to my Mom's house so I could clean and Lily could visit with Grandma. My mom has been sick for over a week now so it has been awhile since we've seen her. Then we came home and I immediately got Lily down for a nap. While she was napping I worked for 2 and a half hours at my Internet job. Once she woke up we started baking cookies for Christmas. I am in charge of dessert for dinner at my Mom's tomorrow, so I wanted to make an assortment of Christmas cookies. Since there is only 5 of us I figured I'd make extra and drop some off with friends tomorrow. I got the bright idea to make sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies, snow balls and rice krispies treats. All in all not that much, but it took me 4 and a half hours straight of baking. I didn't stop once and the oven was never empty. I am SO tired. My back and feet are killing me and the kitchen is a disaster. But I have TONS of cookies. We'll be enjoying Christmas cookies for days. :) Then it was bath and bed time. Chip is currently wrapping my gifts, so I figured it was a good time to sneak in my blog post for today. I can't wait for tomorrow!!

Lily and Avery having fun at the top of the big slide.
Action Shot!

Taylor and Lily

Lily and Taylor climbed this whole course together and were so proud of themselves that they gave each other high fives at the end. It was SO cute.

I was pretty proud of her too.

Lily, Noble, Taylor, Paisley and Avery

Lily helped me make the Snow Ball cookies by pouring in all the ingredients.

Then I let her sprinkle all the sugar cookies. I was very relax and having fun at the beginning of the four + hours. By the end I was a little less fun, so it was good that we did the sugar cookies second. :)

She really was a huge help. She put sprinkles on all the sugar cookies while I rolled the snow balls in powdered sugar. Some cookies have a whole jar of sprinkles on one cookie and some cookies only have 5 sprinkles, but they are all special since Lily made them!