Christmas 2011

This year, for the first time, we spent Christmas at home alone. Although we certainly missed seeing everyone and spending time with our families, we still had a great time.

On Christmas Eve, we went out to an early dinner before the church service and the boys chose to eat some fine cuisine from McDonalds. Oh well. After enjoying our meal together, we went to a beautiful service before driving around to look at lights. Our favorite house didn't decorate this year so it was slim pickin's. Then we went home and started our new Christmas tradition of opening one gift each - and that gift is a new pair of pajamas. After putting them on, lighting the fake fire (we have a gas fireplace), and watching a movie together, we sent the kids to bed.

As usual, the kids weren't allowed to see what Santa brought until they woke us up. Much to their dismay, Dana laid down the law and set a "no one bother us before 6:00" rule. Since the stairs to their rooms are right beside the living room, Dana and I slept upstairs in the bonus room to make sure they didn't peek.

At 5:58 am, we were awakened by 3 rowdy boys bursting at the seams with anticipation and excitement. Remember that feeling?

Here's what the boys found when they came downstairs. Cade got a Green Machine, Cameron got an iPod Touch and Kevin got a wicked-cool, electric Airsoft rifle. As their dad, I automatically called priority on all 3 Santa gifts when I want to play with them.

And then the paper shredding began.

Laser Tag with night vision! We've, I mean, the boys have had a blast with these.



You can tell Cameron didn't have any interest in this Metroid game for his Wii. He's been dying to get this since it came out in September.

Shortly after we got up, we noticed it was snowing! Before long, we had 3" of snow on the ground and it continued snowing all day and most of the next but we didn't have any more accumulation. Later in the morning, we went sledding on the hill by our house and were joined by our neighbors on both sides of us. We all had a great time together and it was quite different than our experiences in Las Cruces where everyone is confined to their own, walled-in yard. I tell you, we had a wonderful Christmas! However, Cade was a little bummed about the snow because he couldn't ride his Green Machine for a few days.

First snow tasting of the year.


I don't know why we took a picture of our table but I like this shot for the trees and houses in the background.




Out here, they have these things called trees that the snow collects on and they look really pretty.



The view across the road toward our old back yard.









Cade will spend all day, every day outdoors if we'd let him. Here he's getting ready for our second trip out in the snow. I found my old ski mask and gave it to him to keep his face warm. Doesn't he look awfully stinkin' cute?





I built a snowman on Cade's head.

Our neighbor built the big snowman in the background. He quickly developed a lean before losing his head. Then I noticed the little one I built on the Titan was doing the same thing. The Snowman Lean. Sounds like a new dance craze!

Cade and I had a contest to see who could throw a snowball the highest against the house. Here's his jumpshot.

This is on the 3rd day of the snow hanging around. We didn't have much left but that didn't stop Cade from taking advantage of what was there.

It took a couple of days but he was finally able to take his new wheels out for a spin. And he crashed right off the bat. For some reason, this thing doesn't spin so well on the concrete. The kids have a little trouble with it on the asphalt as well (I don't!).

Cade's first ride and his first crash.

He was hesitant to try it again but I talked him into it. Here's his first successful spin. (Special thanks to Cameron for letting me use his iPod to record this. Dang that thing is neat!)