NEW YEAR BLESSINGS!

Sure hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Well, I got the white Christmas I was hoping for! Woke up Christmas Eve morning and it was snowing SO beautiful. Took a few pictures while the snow was fresh! The picture on top is my Dogwood tree out in the front yard. My ball of lights were so pretty covered in snow! The other is my bird bath. That shows just how much snow we got! It stopped during the day but started up again that night. I told my family it was just like in the movies. I love watching all those Hallmark Christmas movies. And of course, at the end it ALWAYS snows on Christmas Eve! We enjoyed our rib roast and then the kids eagerly opened one present from the "House Elf". When my kids were little we had a "Book Elf" and a "House Elf". The book elf came every night starting a week before Christmas. While they slept at night he would leave a Christmas book under their pillow. The "House Elf" would leave a gift to be opened on Christmas Eve. We no longer do the books, but I still let them open one gift on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning starts off with the kids opening their gifts from "Santa". Then we all open our stockings. By now I have put in the breakfast casserole to bake. Once we have our breakfast, I get all the dishes cleaned up, and David gets the turkey in the oven. Then we sit down to open our presents. This takes us about three hours, for presents are passed out one at a time, youngest to oldest. We take time to see what the person has before the next person is given their present. This way we enjoy the moment that much longer!

This year we had a beautiful day. It snowed once again while we were opening presents! This is the first time I have ever had it snow on Christmas Eve and on Christmas day! And now the not-too-fun stuff starts. Returns, exchanges, finding the good deals, fighting the crowds once again! Oh, the joy of Christmas!