Merry Christmas

Our Christmas starts tomorrow morning. Chris and Monica are going to her parents for Christmas this year. They live in Spokane, which is about 6 hours East of Seattle. They wanted to have Christmas with us before they leave, so 9am starts Christmas for me. We're having breakfast and presents and then off they go. In the afternoon, we'll head to my Dad's house for Christmas Eve with my Dad and his girlfriend and my brother and his family. Christmas Eve dinner is always casual for us .. spiral ham and all the fixings to make ham sandwiches, oyster stew (Norweign tradition on my Dad's side of the family), augratin potatoes, veggies and dessert .. along with hot buttered rums and egg nogs. My only concern is the snow that is hanging around here. This is definately the coldest winter we've had in 18 years. I definately hope we can make it to my Dad's .. but if not, we'll just have to move Christmas Eve to another night .. as long as I'm with family ... doesn't really matter what the calendar day is.

Christmas will be quiet for us. We'll have a relaxing morning and than will head to my father-in-law's about 1pm. We'll open presents and then off to dinner ... yep, ever since my mother-in-law passed away, my fil really doesn't like to cook or have anyone else cook. It's ok, we've all gotten used to it .. not what we like, but it's what he enjoys and that's what really is important. Spending time with him is what matters .. not where we are spending the time ... make sense?

We usually don't stay late, he gets tired pretty quickly .. maybe DH, Rob and I will take in a movie in the evening. Soooo that's how I'll be spending the next few days ... as long as the weather cooperates!

Merry Christmas to all my online friends near and far. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday full of all that warms your heart.

I'll leave you with a few winter pictures from this week ... thanks for visiting and all your comments, I really enjoy reading them :)

Saturday night the snow started ...

This was about 11:30pm Saturday night ...

Sunday morning ...

and when it stopped sometime Sunday evening we had about 10" of beautiful snow ... I say beautiful, even though I've been housebound since last Thursday, for the most part. We don't have a car that is very ice/snow worthy ...

Maddy LOVES the snow!

think they look a little tired? We were out in the backyard for about an hour of hard fun play .. they love to chase snowballs and try to catch them in their mouth! lol

I'm grateful for family ...